Newly Discovered Fish Walks Like Salamander

Another link in the evolutionary chain may have gotten filled, after researchers discovered a walking fish.

This fish isn't about to bust a move on the ocean floor, but scientists say that the cave dwelling Cryptotora Thamicola climbs waterfalls in a manner much more similar to a salamander than a salmon. Brooke Flammang discovered the fish while in Thailand in 2015. Her team at the New Jersey Institute of Technology published a paper on the fish in "Nature Scientific Reports" on March 14. While other fish imitate walking by using fins as a sort of crutch, or by wriggling their way along land, this new cavefish coordinates front and back fin movements, using what scientists call a "robust pelvic girdle." Flammang and her colleagues hope that their discovery will help the scientific community better understand how animals made the switch from fin to limb, an estimated 420 million years ago.

For NewsBeat Social, I'm Christelle Koumoué.