A FOSSIL of a seven-toed reptile has been discovered. The beast is an evolutionary throwback, as it lived 100 million years after other seven-toed amphibians had died out.
The oldest known four-legged animals, Ichthyostega and Acanthostega, had seven or eight digits per limb, with the extra digits next to the thumb. The extra digits disappeared 350 million years ago, leaving five per limb.
The new fossil is of a Nanchangosaurus, an aquatic marine reptile that lived about 242 million years ago in China. It is the first specimen found with the digits preserved, revealing that it had seven complete digits…
