Individual Response to the Material and Readings - Book Report/Review Example

Book Review -Your Inner Fish The book “ Your Inner Fish “ by Neil Shubin is interesting from the very beginning, as one look at the there is anintriguing element to it. It is more about knowing who you are and what our connection with fish world. The article is absolutely scientific and introduced with clear and simple fossil depiction of human, animal, amphibians and fishes as it was found on rock. The interesting part about the book is that it is presenting facts with strong evidence and this makes the reading credible and professional. The topography and details in the initial pages are connecting well chosen scientific facts with the theme of the book. The author has taken the courage to glimpse past 2.5 billion years which seems the information procuring was a bit hard. From the book, we can understand that the author has done enormous research and studying into the subject as information is deeply rich. There are plenty an image which shows the information is evidence based and also makes it easy for normal people to understand. The first fossil carefully presented by author is a fish and the source of fossil which is rock is extensively showcased. One can view the fishes and see the slow evolution where it turns it an amphibian. This point is not arguable as people no evolution started from water and fishes are what turned to amphibians. One thing what comes into mind is the transformation of tadpole into frog as the former has a tail and abandons it as it matures. The fishes are later shown to evolve gradually develop limbs and face and ultimately become human. But it does make sense as far as the fossil go, but we do not have the real proof to it and something can sound dubious. We cannot see a stage between a dog and a man as in a creature which looks half dog and half human. After dog the transformation is merely on basis of bone structure and we really do not know human are another species completely with some common characteristic of animals. In fact, human arm and a four legged animal’s arm do have good similarities but this is not good enough to conclude that we indeed evolve from animals. However, the hand and arm born structure is pretty convincing evidence about our inner fish self. Now when we look at the DNA and chromosomes, we can understand we are going into more intricate details we can find that looking at the evolution of men and the fossil discovered of men nearly make this article justifiable. Obviously we know, that we all live on this earth, using the same resource however might in some various version. But the entire ecosystem is merely indicating to a food chain where lower species are food source of higher species. So ultimitately what we process and food in may way belong to other species and all as the old saying goes “chip of the old block”. Actually what the author is saying is true, man and fish have common ancestor and this can be backed up by many evidence archaeologists have found in fossils in recent years. Some time ago a group of French and Swedish researchers have got evidence that origin of human face could be explained. They explain that the human face can be explained to a fish which lived 410 million years ago called Rounding. These species were around 8 inches long had a defensive spine, a jaw and two flat plates and crushed its food. These were formed from a species which was a jawless vertebrate. As per ( Fenner,2014) “The group imaged the fossilized remains and successfully determined the internal structure of the skull, using a technique called micron resolution X-ray imaging, at the European Synchrotron (ESRF) in Grenoble, France”. The facial structure of this fish species is supposed to be a mixture of both primitive and modern features. This shows the evolution of jawless to jawed invertebrates and with this point we can be assure that human did evolve from fishes. This fish had the jaws of a vertebrate but a proportion of a jawless one. When the facial structure of the fish did have much likeness to human ,we can be certain that we have come from fishes. So the author is presenting a very valid scientific fact here. Even a religious mythology talks about fishes as the first structured living being. In Hindu mythology, the God has first come in the form of fish in the flooded earth and later it was transformed to another form of wild animal which was four legged. So it means fish was indeed some way is the real ancestor of human beings. So, the author shows us the fossils and evolution along so many years we can understand that it is indeed turn. Even the Article left solid information how the fishes’ face resemble the skull structure of a human beings. So we understand that fish and human have a common ancestor and the book is making the claim of evidence acceptable and comprehensible. The inner fish in you is an apt title for the book because if we look in to us we can see that we came from water. We are 75 % water and even every life originated in water as earth was filled with water in the very beginning. Even the Darwin’s theory suggests that the first life form was micro organism in oceans and later they evolved to fish then amphibians, reptiles and animals. Now, the idea that put forward by the author is scientific enough to believe and one cannot debate much to the ideas. There are enough fossils being shown in the book which makes the understanding of the reader easy. The author is giving an idea how our body became so complicated using fossils as a measure. The author has given evidence through embryos, fossils and genes that we indeed have come from lower specie. He reveals how our body is an evolved form of an ancient fish, reptiles and primates. Many did not contemplate that fish could belong in our family tree. We all have a notion that ancestor means apes or primates but this is not entirely true as we have a much older history to be accustomed with. It is explained that our hands are evolved from the fins of fishes. Now we can also swim, so that means somewhere in us we are still connected to living in water. The fish anatomy has a resemblance with human structure and it is million years of transformation which placed different species in different position in animal kingdom. Now we are looking at many aspects like genetic mutation, evolution, natural selection and geographical variance. It Is not all species transform at one stretch some do behave in a different way to certain circumstances and that is why some species stay same while other adapt to other situations. In fact, if we look at humans, we can see that all are having same structure. Even though human life originated in Africa, we can see that some group wandered while the rest remained in the same place and they are aneroid race, other became European and Mongolians. One another journal article by Allen and Stevenson does pour some light on the evolution process of humans. The writing explains says that since human evolution is dated to some eight million years ago there can be more to us than the primates and apes. The evolution tree is completely explained by the author with geographical proof and we can see the before apes the animal kingdom only limited to four legged, reptiles and water life. This article share information how earlier hominin activity was near water zones. This means that we did not move away from water in earlier times and could be that our ancestor evolved from water and as we transformed we started living off water. According to ( Shubin,2009,pg.34) “In a perfectly designed world —one with no history— we would not have to suffer everything from hemorrhoids to cancer.” The article show how primates got separated from us due to geographical changes and the fishes also would have separated from our ancestors as a natural selection. We know that when we look at tadpole and fetes of animals and humans we can see tail bone and similarity in structure. Actually all of the foetuses look similar with only countable differences. So it is not a doubtable thing to hear that we have inner fish that may be invisible to us on many grounds. This book is a journey into to some 3.5 billion years and the facts presented by the author are commendable. As per ( Mitchell,2010) “The author, Neil Shubin, is Professor of Anatomy at the University of Chicago and Provost of its field museum. He has wide expertise in both fossils and biology. His co-worker, Edward Daeschler, is Curator of Vertebrate Biology in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia”. The suspicions and investigative mentality of the writer is well reflected in the book. The questions like what do we have common with fly and its wings? What is the feature we share with our fellow species? Are we all connected in some way? And definitely we get answers to these questions. To better understanding the working of nature we need to introspect many aspects and even need to tantalize our intelligence and common sense. We do not get 100 % answers and evidence but we need to correlate and assume some facts which seems logical to us and this book helps a lot with facts. The author looks at the organs of animals and humans in present and ancient times. From this we get to understand lot of things which make sense. According to ( Johnson,2014) “ It is the second lecture in Shubins spring comparative biology class titled, provocatively, The 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body. Using one of his arms to wield a laser pointer, the other to advance slides on a screen, Cubin talks about Tiktaalik and Pokemon, the biological tree of life and the family tree of the British royals”.With fossils andDNA evidence Shubin shows us that our hands resembles the fins and the head is structures like that of a jawless fish. Also he claims that the major part of genome look and function like the worms and bacteria’s. It is an intelligent and exhilarating and compelling book with ample scientific scenarios and facts/ this book makes us believe that we are indeed one big family with different structure, faces and nature. When we look at the developing chicken wing and genes and DNA we can see where the mutation occurred and how things changed according to nature’s will. The gene mutation is a fact but why it occurs is not a proven thing. But we could very well assume that it is a nature way of establishing the perfect specie on earth. The book has slides on dinosaur footprints in Nova Scotia and it shows the likeness in hair, feather breasts and teeth of earlier species and humans. This book is an all in all and has every evolutionary facts covered related to DNA and gene of species from fish to human. The author has taken the initiative to look at the animals with head and the way they resemble the human species. The ears, jaws, the larynx, and throat and investigated to portray their similarities. The author Neil Shubin is a palaeontologist and this book is an impressive guide to the evolution of human beings. The book “Your Inner Fish” is a three part exploration based on some of his book and other historical evidence. According to (Genzlinger,2014 ) “In episodes titled “Your Inner Fish,” “Your Inner Reptile” and “Your Inner Monkey,” Dr. Shubin examines what we share with animals of the distant past and how we became what we are”. He looks in to every species in order to find a correlation with the fishes and human beings. The book shows some amazing facts that fish testicle is situated near heart while human heart also is placed somewhere near. The author shows the reader how is search for the evolutionary evidence has given him some interesting conclusions. Dr. Shubin has given some critical aspects on skeletal similarities and tells that genetics is a historical record of our origins . He says that just like fossils the genes are also a valuable historical evidence of our evolution and origin. The book states that we have yolk making genes even though they don’t function anymore but indeed we have egg laying ancestors. This is an astonishing fact which makes anyone ponder for a while. We interestingly carry the genetic signature of our egg lying past which is incredible fact from the book. According to (Answering Genesis,2014 ) “Your Inner Fish also promotes the myth of embryonic recapitulation by showing us “Molly’s gill.” Molly is a woman with a small pit in front of her ear, an inconsequential embryologic remnant that Cubin identifies as “a leftover from an ancient gill” saying, “We’re all fish,” and “Sometimes things go wrong, and when they do your inner fish can come out.” The book shows such examples where readers would not be confused about our inner fish genetics. We know that the human embryo prominently shows a tail which disappears as it grown in to an offspring and this is a common evidence available for everyone to understand the wry are indeed evolved from fish. Being a paleontologist, Cubin has proved to be a good writer on such an intriguing subject. Conclusion Neil Cubin is paleontologists as well as a professor of anatomy and the book “Your inner fish” is an adventurous journey into our past. As we stride through the book we can see many facets of evolution. The author has explored species from fish to human and every specie in between has been explored and reader never feel that any apsects of evolution has been missed out. He talks about Tiktaalik fish which is an ancient species of fish from which all other life forms are possible evolved. This book has many facts which make us think that we are a part of a big tree of life. The book is of great value as it has been written by a profession and a scientific personality. We can see that he has given information about human gemology and thrown light on every possible aspect to make information more clearly to us. This book can have many critical reviews as many scientist or historians still do not believe we have much connection with fish. But this book is clear evidence that we indeed have been evolved from fish as the “Tree of Life” explains. For a knowledgeable man the human fetus itself is a proof that he is connected to fish in many ways. So the book “Your Inner Fish” is indeed a re- discovery of human race evolution. References Answering Genesis, . (2014). Review: Your Inner Fish. In https://answersingenesis.org. Retrieved June 11, 2014, from https://answersingenesis.org/reviews/tv/review-your-inner-fish/ Genzlinger, N. (2014). Those Fish Fins You Call Hands and Other Evolutionary Quirks. In http://www.nytimes.com. Retrieved June 10, 2014, fromhttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09 /arts/television/your-inner-fish-traces-human-evolutionary-history-on-pbs.html?_r=0 Fenner, J. (2014). New Fossil Evidence of Romundina Fish Explains Origins of the Human Face? . In http://guardianlv.com. Retrieved June 11, 2014, from http://guardianlv.com/2014/02/new-fossil-evidence-of-romundina-fish-explains-origins-of-the-human-face/ Johnson, S. (2014). Neil Shubin tells the story of us in Your Inner Fish. In http://articles.chicagotribune.com. Retrieved June 11, 2014, from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-04-08/entertainment/ct-your-inner-fish-neil-shubin-20140408_1_neil-shubin-fish-paleontologist-your-inner-fish Mitchell, C. (2010). Is the fish really our ancestor?. In http://creation.com. Retrieved June 11, 2014, from http://creation.com/review-neil-shubin-your-inner-fish Shubin, N. (2009). Your inner fish ; A journey into 3.5 billion history of the human body (p. 34). New York: Penguin Books Limited. Read More