It was previously thought fingers and toes evolved once our ancestors had moved from sea to land 380 million years ago.

But a new fossil has proven that fish's fins were already developing in to fingers many years before they became land-bound.

Panderichthy fish are believed to be the predecessor of tetrapods - the first stage of land-bound human evolution.

A researcher said: "For a long time, we thought that fingers were a novelty for tetrapods.

"In the past two years, some evidence has come forward to make us doubt that.

"Our study is the final piece of evidence that proves, without a doubt, that fingers are not new to tetrapods, but that they evolved from distal radials - structures present in fish ancestors.

"It is an important piece of evidence for the evolution of fish to tetrapods and how 'we' transformed from fish to land animals."