Your inner fish

I might be biased, but Prof. Shubin is a fascinating guy, and he has a penchant for telling stories in a way that reels you in—whether you think you will be interested or not. So it was for me with Tiktaalik, and this book, to my surprise, was not just about Tiktaalik, but about the evolutionary history of the human body. This is a tale told through specific discoveries and referencing specific parts of the human body. In a sense, I had familiarity with this due to being lucky enough to take a course on this very subject with him; however, this book delves a lot deeper into the particularities than I can remember from that course (discredit to my memory, not to Dr. Shubin).

This book hammers in the idea that the universe is a magnificent and wondrous place, one in which living beings are connected to each other even in the smallest details. Human evolution is not a mere ‘theory’, as some ideologues might claim. You can actually see it playing out in our very own body—through the development of limbs, fingers, and even the tiny bones in our ear that are derived from prehistoric jaws. It is so difficult for me to understand how there are human beings who can be skeptical about evolution and the majestically powerful forces of nature when facing facts such as these… but then, I suppose, many of them fail to do that.

His approach to these topics remains accessible and well-written, almost narrative in a way. If you aren’t familiar with biology at all, this would still be an engaging and informative choice. It does reference research and relevant studies, but it doesn’t belabor the science, since this is aimed at a general audience. Even though the book is a bit dated, the information presented is still quite relevant and a solid foundation for further study on the topic. You can even check out Prof. Shubin’s recent work, such as his “fish gym”.

A fascinating book to read to learn about how life on earth is related to each other for one simple reason: we are all descended from one common ancestor. Changes may have occurred as all life on Earth branched out from that common ancestor, but you can still trace that common lineage between us all; even between humans and fish.

Shubin is best known for discovering Tikta`alik, but he uses his other experiences (searching for other fossils, teaching human anatomy, running a lab that explores both palaeontology and genetics) to help guide the reader as he shows the various ways we are connected to various life forms on Earth: to fish via our hands and arms, to amphibians via the way our heads and faces developed, to reptiles via the way reptile jaw bones became parts of our inner ear and to mammals via the way our teeth develop.

He sums it up by showing that evolution can only work with what it has, explaining why some parts of our body seems to have developed in a haphazard way. The obvious answer is because our original body plan started out as fish and as we developed, parts of us get moved about, leading to all sorts of strange routes taken by our body parts as they moved from the original fish-related positions to where they are now.

He also shows that some of the problems that ails us are due to this fish to human way to development. Probably the most unexpected is the reason we hiccup; it was a response originally required by tadpoles to help breathing, but is now a relic response that causes hiccups.

It is such insights and others in the book that make you understand just how we are all connected to one another and to all life on earth. And you will definitely learn to appreciate your inner fish.