I have searched everywhere I can think of. Maybe you can help?

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Bill - 07 Jul 2005 20:50 GMT

Within the last 5 years I read an article in a scientific magazine for
the general public (e.g. Scientific American) about a prototype of a
fish that could have lived 300+ million years ago. The fish was not
really but was a archetype created by trending evolutionary forces
backwards to one point of origin. I am trying to find the name
assigned to this prototype and to refresh my memory by reading any
articles about it.

I want to use the name in the title of a non-scientific article I am
writing. Any help, or suggestions for research would be very much
appreciated.

Regards Bill

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John Harshman - 07 Jul 2005 21:48 GMT

> Within the last 5 years I read an article in a scientific magazine for
> the general public (e.g. Scientific American) about a prototype of a
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> assigned to this prototype and to refresh my memory by reading any
> articles about it.

Are you sure about this? Putting names to imaginary ancestors has been
out of style for the past 30 years, at least. The only exception I can
think of is the so-called "zootype", the hypothetical common ancestor of
all animals.

There are plenty of real fossils you could also be thinking of, though
none of them is identifiable as an ancestral fish, per se. But how about
Haikouichthys? It's 530 million years old, so much older than the fish
you remember. 300 million years is a bit recent for the ancestor of all
fish.

> I want to use the name in the title of a non-scientific article I am
> writing. Any help, or suggestions for research would be very much
> appreciated.
>
> Regards Bill

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Natural Science Forum / Biology / Paleontology / July 2005

I have searched everywhere I can think of. Maybe you can help?