What were the first land dwelling vertebrates?

Answer 1

Vertebrates are the group of animals that have a backbone. The common name for aquatic vertebrates are fish. The group of vertebrates that are terrestrial (land-dwelling) are called tetrapods. The first tetrapods evolved in the late Devonian. They were amphibious creatures that spent part of their lives in water. Tetrapods evolved from a group of fish known as the lobe-finned fish. Living lobe-fins are the lungfish and coelacanths. A lobe-finned fish from late Devonian might have learned to breathe air and crawl onto land. The fish may have done that to escape predators (such as sharks, placoderms, and larger lobe-finned fish) or find food on land. It could also reach other bodies of water by crawling overland, or live in very shallow water. Eventually, the fish became better adapted to life on land. Its front, or pectoral, and back, or pelvic, fins evolved into front and hind limbs. It lost all its other fins. It also evolved a neck (a space between the shoulder bones and skull) to allow the head to move around to see behind it, and up or down to reach food. So the first tetrapods were big lizard-like amphibious animals that laid their eggs in water. They also needed to keep their skin wet (it could dry easily), so they never went far from water and were probably more active on land at dusk or dawn.

Answer 2

lobe-finned fishes