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Splay-footed, not flat-footed 八字足，而非平足 A new fossil shows that evolution does not alwaysmean change 一个新的化石表明：进化并不总是意味着改变 Then and now 过去与现在 WHEN a coelacanth, a type of lobe-finned fish once considered the missing link between fishand amphibians, was found off the coast of South Africa in 1938, it came as a shock topalaeontologists. 以前人们一度认为一种叫做腔棘鱼的鳍鱼是鱼类和两栖类之间缺少的环节，1938年当腔棘鱼在南非海岸沿海被发现时，古生物学家对它的出现大感震惊。 Until then, the most recent traces ofsuch a creature had been in rocks dating from the last days of the dinosaurs, 65m yearsago. 在此之前，这种动物最近的遗迹出现在6500万年前恐龙时代后期的岩层中。 It was, in its way, as surprising as if a live Tyrannosaurus had been found hiding in anobscure part of Montana. 而它这次的出现方式，就好像一个活生生的霸王龙属被发现藏身在蒙大拿州的模糊地带一样令人惊讶。 Now the same experience is hitting palaeontologists againbut this time in reverse.Instead of finding a living fossil identical to an ancient beast, they have found a real fossilidentical to a modern one. | 
