Researchers figured out the events that lead to the evolution of fish to tetrapod, amphibians and reptiles, by conducting an experiment to a Polypterus.

Polypterus is a fish found in Africa that can walk on land and breaths air and resemble the ancient fish that evolved into a tetrapod.

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To come up with this finding, researchers raised a Polypterus on land for a year for them to know how they will react to their environment.

Emily Standen from the University of Ottawa said that stressful environmental conditions can lead to cryptic anatomical and behavioral variation.

She said that they wanted to use the mechanism what changes they could trigger to see if they match the known fossil record.

Their experiment revealed a remarkable anatomical and behavioral change Polypterus walked more effectively.

They placed their fins closer to the body, lifted their heads and higher and kept their fins from slipping, researchers said.

Trina Du, one of the researchers, revealed that the pectoral skeleton of the fish became more elongated that has stronger attachments across their chest.

She said that this can increase support during walking and reduce contact to the skull and allow head and neck motion.

Hans Larson, another researchers involved in the study, said that the fossil record and anatomical changes that happened with the fish is very similar.

With this finding, researchers could hypothesize that similar behavioral change happened to the fish that walked on land.

Researchers believe that their finding is unique and gives a new light on how pre-historic fish use their fins to walk on land.

Larson explained that this is a demonstration on how developmental plasticity aided the large-scale evolutionary transition.

Developmental Plasticity occurred when there is a change in neural changes caused by environmental interactions.