A forgotten rock and a pandemic discovery
In the summer of 2004, paleontologists on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic discovered a fossil that would show how animals moved from the transition from water to land: Tiktaalik roseae. Just days before and 1.5 kilometers away, a team member picked up a less promising-looking rock with just a few white scales showing. For over 15 years, that specimen, NUFV 137, sat in storage. In March 2020, researchers Justin Lemberg and Tom Stewart finally used CT scanning technology to look inside the rock. The scan revealed a complete pectoral fin and a surprising upper arm bone, or humerus, that was unlike Tiktaalik's.
The team had discovered a new species, which they formally named Qikiqtania wakei in July 2022. The genus name, Qikiqtania (pronounced "kick-kick-TAN-ee-ya"), comes from the Inuktitut word Qikiqtaaluk or Qikiqtani, the traditional name for the region. The species name honors the influential evolutionary biologist David Wake. The fossil was found in the Fram Formation, a geological layer dating to the Late Devonian period, approximately 375 million years ago. At that time, this Arctic region was a warm environment of rivers and streams near the equator.