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LiveScience
LiveScience
Stephanie Pappas

Ancient relative of 'living fossil' fish reveals that geological activity supercharges evolution

An illustration of a purple fish.

Primeval fish that were thought to be "living fossils," largely unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs, are actually evolving dramatically — and they evolved faster when Earth's continents moved faster, fossils of a newly identified coelacanth species have revealed.

The findings suggest that the large-scale movement of continents may spur the evolution of life, the researchers reported Thursday (Sept. 12) in the journal Nature Communications.

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