Big tides could change the evolution of bony fish and tetrapods

The study is a detailed development of a theory previously published in the same journal. Theory

assumed that a certain mass of the Moon and itsorbital positions were suitable for creating large tidal ranges and isolating tidal basins. This, in turn, could be a biological stimulus for the development of limbs in fish stranded between very high tides.

Scientists from Bangor and OxfordUniversities in the UK and Uppsala University in Sweden were the first to carry out detailed numerical simulations to find out for sure whether there were big tides during this critical period of evolution. Incidentally, these are the first calculations linking tidal hydrodynamics with an evolutionary biological event.

Numerical modeling was carried out withusing paleogeographic reconstructions of the Earth's continents in the established modern numerical model of ebb and flow. Modeling results show that tidal fluctuations exceed four meters in the South China block. It is he who is the place of origin of the earliest group of teleost fish, judging by the fossils found.

The researchers are confident that the method involvedin this study can be used in other paleogeographic reconstructions, revealing what happened to living species in other time periods. Among other things, this will help study the influence of tides on the origin and diversity of other early vertebrates. 

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