Question 1

How do you say Tiktaalik?

Accepted Answer

Tiktaalik is pronounced tik-TAH-lik, with the stress on the middle syllable. Say it in three parts: tik, then TAH (the loud bit), then lik. The name comes from Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit people of northern Canada, so it does not follow the Latin or Greek patterns you might expect from other prehistoric creature names. Once you get it, it is actually one of the more fun prehistoric names to say out loud.

Question 2

What does Tiktaalik mean?

Accepted Answer

Tiktaalik is an Inuktitut word meaning a large freshwater fish that lives in shallow water. The Inuit people of Nunavut, Canada suggested the name when the scientists who discovered the fossil consulted with the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board. It was a fitting choice because Tiktaalik did indeed live in shallow water environments around 375 million years ago. The species name, roseae, honors an anonymous donor who funded the research expeditions.

Question 3

Was Tiktaalik a dinosaur?

Accepted Answer

No, Tiktaalik was not a dinosaur at all. It was a prehistoric fish, specifically a type of lobe-finned fish called a sarcopterygian, and it lived about 375 million years ago during the Late Devonian Period. Dinosaurs did not appear until around 230 million years ago, so Tiktaalik predates the age of dinosaurs by roughly 145 million years. Tiktaalik is actually more closely related to you than it is to any dinosaur, since it sits on the evolutionary branch leading to all land vertebrates, including humans.

Question 4

When did Tiktaalik live?

Accepted Answer

Tiktaalik lived during the Late Devonian Period, approximately 375 to 379 million years ago. To put that in perspective, the first dinosaurs would not appear for another 145 million years, and modern humans would not show up for another 374.8 million years after Tiktaalik. The Devonian is sometimes called the Age of Fishes because the oceans and rivers were dominated by an incredible variety of fish, but it was also the period when life first began making the leap onto dry land.

Question 5

How big was Tiktaalik?

Accepted Answer

Tiktaalik ranged in size from about 4 feet (1.25 meters) to around 9 feet (2.75 meters) long, based on the different sized specimens found on Ellesmere Island. The smaller ones were roughly the size of a large dog, while the biggest individuals were about as long as a full-grown adult human is tall, just lying flat. Scientists estimate the largest specimens may have weighed around 50 to 55 pounds (roughly 25 kilograms), though exact weight is hard to calculate from fossil bones alone.

Question 6

Where was Tiktaalik found?

Accepted Answer

Tiktaalik fossils were discovered on Ellesmere Island, in the territory of Nunavut in the far north of Canada, well above the Arctic Circle. The fossils were found in a rock layer called the Fram Formation, which was deposited in ancient river sediments. Even though the site is now one of the most remote and frigid places on Earth, 375 million years ago it was close to the equator and had a warm, tropical climate with shallow, muddy rivers and flood plains.

Question 7

What did Tiktaalik eat?

Accepted Answer

Tiktaalik was a carnivore that most likely ate smaller fish, primitive aquatic invertebrates, and anything else small enough to fit in its wide, tooth-lined jaws. Its flat skull, forward-facing eyes, and strong bite suggest it was an ambush predator, lurking in shallow water among plants and striking at prey that came close. Its forward-facing eyes gave it depth perception, which is very useful for judging exactly when to lunge at a target, similar to the way cats and owls use their forward-facing eyes today.

Question 8

Could Tiktaalik walk on land?

Accepted Answer

Tiktaalik could not walk on land the way a lizard or dog does, but it could almost certainly prop itself up on its stiff, muscular pectoral fins and drag or inch its body forward through very shallow water or possibly across wet mudflats. Think of how a seal or mudskipper moves when it hauls itself along the ground today. Its rib cage was strong enough to support its body weight out of water, and it had primitive lung tissue for breathing air, so short excursions out of water were probably within its abilities.

Question 9

Why is Tiktaalik so important?

Accepted Answer

Tiktaalik is considered one of the most important fossil discoveries ever made because it filled in a major gap in the evolutionary record between fish and four-limbed land animals. It showed scientists exactly how the transition from fin to limb happened, with actual bones inside the fin matching the humerus, radius, and ulna in your own arm. Every single land vertebrate alive today, from frogs to elephants to humans, shares an evolutionary blueprint that runs through creatures like Tiktaalik. It turned a theoretical prediction into a physical, touchable fossil.

Question 10

Did Tiktaalik have lungs?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Tiktaalik almost certainly had primitive lungs in addition to gills. Scientists found a spiracle, a small opening on top of the skull, which in many fish is associated with breathing air directly. The Devonian rivers and swamps where Tiktaalik lived were often warm and low in dissolved oxygen, so the ability to gulp air from the surface would have been a huge survival advantage. Having both gills and primitive lungs made Tiktaalik much more adaptable than fish that could only breathe underwater.

Question 11

How was Tiktaalik discovered?

Accepted Answer

Paleontologist Neil Shubin and his colleagues Edward Daeschler and Farish A. Jenkins Jr. found Tiktaalik in 2004 on Ellesmere Island in Canada after four previous expeditions to the area came up empty. They had predicted, using geological science, that rocks of exactly the right age to contain a fish-to-tetrapod transitional fossil were exposed at that location. When the fifth expedition finally dug into the Fram Formation, they uncovered several remarkably well-preserved specimens almost immediately. The fossils were formally described to the world in a 2006 paper in the journal Nature.

Question 12

Is Tiktaalik a human ancestor?

Accepted Answer

Tiktaalik is not a direct ancestor of humans, but it is very closely related to whatever creature was. It sits on the branch of the evolutionary tree that gave rise to all four-limbed land vertebrates, a group called tetrapods, which includes amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, and eventually humans. The bones inside Tiktaalik's fins are the same basic bones found in the arm and hand of every land vertebrate, including yours. So while Tiktaalik itself did not become a human, it was part of the evolutionary lineage that eventually did.

Question 13

Are there any living relatives of Tiktaalik today?

Accepted Answer

The closest living relatives of Tiktaalik are lobe-finned fish, particularly lungfish and the coelacanth. Lungfish, found today in Africa, South America, and Australia, share Tiktaalik's ability to breathe air and can even survive out of water for extended periods by burrowing into mud. The coelacanth, rediscovered alive in 1938 after being thought extinct for 65 million years, also has lobed, fleshy fins with an internal bone structure similar to Tiktaalik's. Both groups are sometimes called 'living fossils' because they retain features very close to those of ancient sarcopterygian fish.

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