Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin evoked many thoughts about evolution and humanity. My favorite chapter from the book was Chapter 11: The Meaning of It All. This chapter tied everything that Shubin had taught and explained to the reader about differences and the overwhelming similarities between different species of organisms. He went on to explain that many of the diseases or problems that appear in the human species are caused by our evolutionary history and would explain where these occurrences came from. An example of this is the phenomenon of hiccups that come from our relation to tadpoles. Tadpoles use this mechanism to breath without getting water in their lungs, but in mammals, this creates the annoyance of having the hiccups. Another …show more content…
I learned a lot about how all living things are related to each other and could see the connections. Shubin did a great job at explaining these relationships and similarities between organisms. It helped me understand how complex and completely random evolution is, while putting it into terms that make it simpler. The breaking down of many different traits that come from our evolutionary past and then putting it all together in the final chapter was what really drove home the process and advantages or disadvantages of evolution. I also found it particularly helpful due to all of the examples that were made throughout this book that I can vividly remember that I hope will be helpful on the AP Exam come …show more content…
He has solid evidence to support his claims, such as the common body plans, the development between humans and fish are strikingly similar, and the similarities in bodily functions. The “law of everything,” in which all living things have parents, is strong evidence for his claim. He goes on to explain – at least in human terms – that even though he has the genetic information from both of his parents, he is not a copy, as they are not copies of their parents, and so on. This makes the point that modification is in every generation of every family, therefore this modification is present in the evolution of species as well, which over the course of millions of years, these species can evolve from a fish, into many different species, and can end up with a human. The sheer fact that organisms have the same body plans, shows that there is nothing random about what organs or structures the body will have and that there must be some relation between all creatures, otherwise all species would have immense differences and would very rarely, if ever have any similarities across species
In the book, Your Inner Fish, by Neil Shubin he presents the notion of evolution and how we can trace parts that make up the human body back to jellyfish, worms, and even fish. The book not only discusses how we arose to be what we are today, but also the implications our ancestors had on our current body plan. In this essay, I will demonstrate that I have digested the entirety of Shubin’s book by convincing you (dear reader) that everything in our bodies is based on simple changes to already existing systems. To make this case, I will use the evidence of limb development in a vast array of organisms, the four arches found in the embryological stage of development, the structures inside our noses, and how our ears have come about all due to modifications.
30. One idea that I have came away with after reading Survival of the Sickest is that evolutionary adaptations are not always perfect for the species; in fact, many times an evolutionary adaptation is a compromise. Furthermore, I have realized that every aspect of humans today is a product of evolution. Hence, every detail of why something in the human body is the way it is can be explained by its value to the species at some point – whether past or present – for survival or increased ability to reproduce. Lastly, the wide, extensive discussion presented in the novel demonstrates to me how important evolution is to biology. In every single idea, theory, or hypothesis explained, evolution connected the concepts together.
In Fish written by Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen we find a woman who moved to Seattle from Southern California with her husband her two children. This woman Mary Jane Ramirez had everything going for her she was a happy person who had a happy life her family their relationship couldn't get any better. They both had good jobs, jobs that they enjoyed. Then one day, twelve months after they had moved to Seattle Dan her husband was rushed to the hospital with a burst aneurysm he then died. After that incident everything changed for Mary Jane especially when she took an offer to work on the third floor for First Guarantee Financial.
Neil Shubin, fish paleontologist, believes the history of humans, and all other living creatures, begins with fish. Neil Shubin says the roadmaps to our own bodies can be seen in all other creatures, in particular, fish because of the shared ancestry. Even though humans don’t appear to look like fish, with a deeper look, Neil Shubin describes the similarities. He describes the underlying theme found in bones and skeletons in all creatures: one bone, two bones, a lot of bones, and then the digits. Shubin researches these connections by looking for fossils in Pennsylvania based on particular times in history. Both fish and human embryos have a head, a body, a tail,
Introduction: The novel Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan follows the hapless journey of twelve Bay Area tourists destined for Burma, accompanied by the ghost of their dear friend Bibi Chen, who died under “mysterious circumstances” just before the departure. The journey continues in a downward spiral until eleven of the tourists go out on a misty lake one morning and disappear. Miss Chen, the omniscient voice of the book, is caught between two worlds and is along for this journey. It isn’t until the end of the book that readers realize many events that occur are actually a metaphor for human relations; and the central theme is that the line between reality and fantasy can be tricky to discern, and things can be vastly different from
Keith Henson a writer in evolutionary psychology once said that “Evolution acts slowly. Our psychological characteristics today are those that promoted reproductive success in the ancestral environment.” Evolution was first introduced by a naturalist by the name of Charles Darwin. Darwin had written an autobiography, at the age of 50, On the Origin of Species (1859) explaining how species evolve through time by natural selection; this theory became known as Darwinism. “Verlyn Klinkenborg, who writes editorials and vignettes on science and nature for the “New York Times”” (Muller 706) questions Darwin’s theory in one of his essays he wrote called Darwin at 200: The Ongoing Force of His Unconventional Idea. Both articles talk about the theory of Darwinism, but the authors’ use different writing techniques and were written in different time periods. Darwin himself writes to inform us on what the theory is, where as Klinkenborg goes on to explain why Darwinism is just a theory. Today, evolution is still a very controversial topic among many. It comes up in several topics that are discussed everyday such as in politics, religion and education.
The theory of evolution is a very interesting, but also a bit of a controversial topic. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines evolution as “a theory that the differences between modern plants and animals are because of changes that happened by a natural process over a very long time.” Even though many people would and have disagreed with this following statement, the theory of evolution as of now is the best the best way of explaining why people and the animals which are, are on earth today.
Perhaps the biggest, and most important form of evolution Ballard presents is one of actual, biological evolution. Through his juxtaposition of humans and a dogfish, Ballard points out how much life has changed since aquatic life dominated the
Scott ensures to immediately cut that idea and replace it with the concept of common ancestors. This is because most people who deny the theory of evolution view it as a linear process even though it does not really work that way. As the book progresses it shifts into the spectrum of creationism and explaining the various creation myths, as well as the continuum of creationism and evolution which shows the degree of literal Biblical interpretation and how it corresponds with evolution, if at all. Scott also clarifies that the position of most people is not a “God did it” mindset, but it is closer to a mentality that God works through natural
Being in this course has changed my view of the biological world greatly. Throughout the four books and various papers that we have read I have learned to think more critically, learned more about learned more about what scientists go through, and even noticed more similarities between humans and fish. The papers helped me understand hard topics, but the discussions with my classmates has helped me better understand how people can build upton others’ ideas or have differing views on a subject, but still have a discussion about it.
Charles Darwin also showed how new species were created on the acts of evolution. It is easily explained by having big differences from the effect of natural selection, which were considered to be new species. So back in the beginning, before the effects of evolution had occurred there was just one specie, which evolved to make the species that we know today. So somehow all species are somewhat connected. The basis of what Darwin was proving was that life on Earth is simply the result of billions of years of adaptation to the changing environments. That is why certain species can only live in certain climates. This can be explained with the color of your skin, or the growing of plants.
Although humans believe they have reached their full intellectual potential, evolution is constant in all creatures. Humans and animals have been in the making for millions of years and continue to be influenced by their environment. Through the use of logos, Nadia Drake successfully explains the basic concepts of human evolution which includes dates, locations, and relations. Using this the audience better understands the process of evolution and the debunked myths that surround
To connect humans and evolution Robert Foley wrote an article on why humans could have evolved, involving paleobiological inferences. This article indicates the evolutionary inheritance of humans and how they could have evolved. This is similar to Darwin’s theory of evolution, evolution doesn’t have to only occur over centuries but in years. For example, in one article, it had stated that a number of lizards had evolved “sticky” scales in less than 15 years Of course this creature didn’t evolve just to evolve, Global warming is having an effect on every specie on earth.
Evolution is the complexity of processes by which living organisms established on earth and have been expanded and modified through theorized changes in form and function. Human evolution is the biological and cultural development of the species Homo sapiens sapiens, or human beings. Humans evolved from apes because of their similarities. This can be shown in the evidence that humans had a decrease in the size of the face and teeth that evolved. Early humans are classified in ten different types of families.
The world around us is a big one. Besides that, it is a very old one: The earth is estimated to be more than four billion years old! Despite earth 's long history, animals and plants emerged only 700 million and 600 million years ago, respectively, and humans, an estimated 200 thousand years ago. Animals and plants descended from earlier life forms. However, this has not always been known. Evolution has been a thoroughly studied theory that has its estimated origins with the Greeks of antiquity and that has continued up to modern times. But just how did evolutionary theory develop, and who were its major thinkers? A brief history of evolutionary thought and its significant proponents is vital to understanding just what shaped