the proponents of creationism are reeling. Science has finally landed a vital clue that will help it demolish the argument that the theory of evolution cannot be valid, because it has not been able to dot all the Is and cross all the Ts. In the first week of April, palaeontologists reported the discovery of the fossil of an animal that had probably planted the first feet on land, literally. The animal fossil, named Tiktaalik, was unearthed by a team of us scientists in Ellesmere Island in Arctic Canada. The animal, though quite similar to fish in many anatomical respects, had several features more suited to a land animal: a flexible neck, a crocodile-like head as well as strong and bony fins that would surely have transformed into legs. It is the prime candidate for the animal that made the water-land transition.

The four billion years, during which life evolved on earth, saw several marvellous metamorphoses. One of the most spectacular was the evolution of terrestrial creatures