An unusual blinking fish is helping scientists understand how human ancestors adapted to life on land.<br /><br />It is thought that life on Earth first began in the ocean around 3.5 million years ago.<br /><br />Descendants began to live in shallower waters and eventually moved to land, developing limbs and lungs.<br /><br />Researchers have discovered that mudskippers blink to clean and protect the eyes like humans and other animals do.<br /><br />"We think [blinking] was likely part of the suite of traits that evolved when tetrapods were adapting to live on land," Thomas Stewart, assistant professor of biology at Penn State University, said.
