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TY - JOUR AU - Zhu, Min AU - Yu, Xiaobo AU - Wang, Wei AU - Zhao, Wenjin AU - Jia, Liantao PY - 2006 DA - 2006/05/01 TI - A primitive fish provides key characters bearing on deep osteichthyan phylogeny JO - Nature SP - 77 EP - 80 VL - 441 IS - 7089 AB - Ray-finned bony fish (ranging from cod to guppies) and lobe-finned bony fish (lungfish, coelacanths and the ancestors of the land vertebrates) were clearly once close relatives, but a large morphological gulf still separates fossils of both groups dating from times when they looked much more similar than they do now. A fossil of a primitive lobe-finned fish that combines many features found in both groups has now been discovered in the Yumman fossil beds in China, and this new species offers a bridgehead between the two distinct lines of fishy descent. SN - 1476-4687 UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04563 DO - 10.1038/nature04563 ID - Zhu2006 ER -