Chapter 2- Getting a Grip

Chapter 2 of Your Inner Fish seemed to go more in depth in terms of explaining and describing the characteristics of the Tiktaalik. Overall, the chapter was once again very interesting and full of detail and description. Shubin did a great job in explaining the bone structure of the human arm, as seen in page 32. We can see that Shubin's writing style is very detailed and intricate as he explains the connections of our bone structure from humans to animals. Without the pictures and images of the variety of animal arms, we would not be able to know how similarly we are connected, despite what it may look like through the naked eye. Through the pictures that Shubin includes as part of the chapter, we see that once again images stimulate a better understanding of what he is trying to explain.

Another detail that Shubin focused on throughout the chapter was about the wrist. Before reading this chapter, I had no care for this part of my body and did not realize the hundreds of millions of years that it took to develop our wrists to become the way they are today. On an everyday basis, humans do not stop to think and realize what the wrist does for us in certain situations. However, the chapter shares that the Tiktaalik used his wrist to move throughout the numerous environments, making the wrist a crucial and mandatory body part for survival. Also, the Tiktaalik found its chest muscles to be helpful as it lived on the ground and helped it survive in the different environments. Going into depth with the small topic of the wrist connected humans to the Tiktaalik in ways that we would have otherwise never considered.

As Shubin continues throughout the chapter, the reader can see that the Tiktaalik fossil serves a crucial purpose in connecting the fish and humans together through the similarity in bone structure. Shubin does a great job in always connecting the reader to an idea that we may find similar to human characteristics. For example, he mentions that the Tiktaalik has the ability to do push-ups, an act that all readers can relate to. This comes to show that there is so much connection that is evident with humans the the fish. It's hard to believe that something so long ago can still be connected with what is now, and every detail comes together to create the human being. It is as if many fishes with different physical aspects from millions of years ago are puzzled together to create mankind. With that being said, chapter 2 and its focus on the connections from studies with humans and fishes allowed the reader to discover our origins and the understand the connections with our unknown ancestors.