Like all sharks and the related skates and rays, Aquilolamna had a cartilaginous skeleton. It had the familiar torpedo-shaped body and tail of a shark, but its pectoral fins were utterly unique.

Rays such as the manta ray, with their flattened bodies and large pectoral fins fused all the way to the head, swim through the water as if they are flying through the air. Aquilolamna appears to ...

Their pectoral fins are extremely large, reaching as long as the distance between the tip of a blue shark’s snout to its last gill slit. Many experts believe they use their pectoral fins to ride ocean ...

Sharks that live in different parts of the ocean, and their respective pectoral fins. CREDIT: Phillip Sternes/UCR. Currently, sea surface temperatures are an average of 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

But they sat in storage, mostly unexamined, while the team focused on preparing Tiktaalik. Nearly 15 years later, they CT-scanned one of the larger rocks and realised it contained a pectoral fin.

While not a true walking shark, it seems these small little animals aren’t the only one who use their pectoral fins in an unusual way. A new publication led by Kristian J. Parton of the Centre ...

Skates are cartilaginous fish that can flourish in benthic ecosystems thanks to their wing-like pectoral fins. This unique trait, however, remains unknown on a molecular level. Where did these ...

Notably, the authors found scant Prickle1 expression in the embryonic pectoral fin of the chain catshark (Scyliorhinus retifer), which, unlike the batoids, does not undergo an anterior expansion.

A trove of fossils in China, unearthed in rock dating back some 436 million years, have revealed for the first time that the mysterious galeaspids, a jawless freshwater fish, possessed paired fins.