Since its foundation in 1998 Fossil Record has found its place in the palaeontological scientific community. Fossil Record has come a long way in the past quarter of a century. The journal has become very visible in the scientific community and is now firmly established in the top quartile of palaeontological journals worldwide. Its impact factor is currently 1.9.

In the beginning a lot of manuscripts were submitted by authors affiliated with the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN) but today most submissions come from abroad and from authors not affiliated with the MfN. In 2014, a new chapter in the history of Fossil Record began: in consultation with stakeholders the journal was transformed into an open access journal. With this important step, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin wanted to set an example for the open availability of research results. And our subsequent success proves us right! Furthermore, Fossil Record is one of the few open access journals that does not request article processing charges from the authors. Such costs have been covered by the MfN.

Today, the MfN is very proud to present a special volume to mark the anniversary of its palaeontological journal. Its theme, ‘The fish-to-tetrapod transition and the conquest of land by vertebrates’, fits in perfectly with one of the museum’s main areas of research, in which various research groups are working on the evolution of early land vertebrates. An active and intense excavation and research program is being carried out in Thuringia at the ‘Bromacker’ in close collaboration with Jena University, Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha and the UNESCO Geopark Drei Gleichen.

I would particularly like to thank the editorial board of Fossil Record and the publication office of the MfN for their tireless efforts to improve the quality and visibility of the journal. We are proud to have a deep and very trusting cooperation between the Directorate, the MfN publication management team and the editors of Fossil Record. This team approach has certainly contributed to the success of the journal. But my particular thanks go to the three editors of this special volume, who have published a very interesting and diverse cross-section of modern research articles on early tetrapods. I would like to congratulate the journal on its anniversary and wish it all the best for the future. The MfN is very proud of Fossil Record and its other two scientific journals!