Questions now arise about tetrapod find

“NEW insight into tetrapods” (HeraldLIVE, June 8): I’m curious and therefore pose a few questions, which I hope will be answered:

Your publication writes that the fossils were from the Devonian Period (supposedly 420 to 360 million years ago) and are 70 million years older than any other four -legged vertebrate found in Africa. So: 1. How old are these said fossils? 2. How was the age determined, that is what dating method(s) were used?

3. “Alive, they would have resembled a cross between a crocodile and a fish, with a crocodile-like head, stubby legs and a tail with a fish-like fin.” How do they know this? They found one bone for Tutusius umlambo. Need I mention Piltdown Man? Or were they actually there to see the creature alive, to make such an assessment?

The Waterloo Farm tetrapod outlines, displayed elsewhere on the web, look no different to an ordinary salamander we find nowadays, for instance Ambystoma andersoni.

So, I put it to you that the find was just that, a salamander. Always was.

Your response gratefully awaited.