The first land animals could barely turn their heads, a Nature study finds

Using a living sturgeon as a stand-in for the first four-legged land animals, Carleton University researchers modelled how much those pioneers could move their necks — and found, to their surprise, almost none of the head-turning we take for granted. Published in Nature, the work redraws a small but vivid piece of the story of how life came ashore: the first steps onto land were taken, quite literally, stiff-necked.