Chapter Two: Getting a Grip

For humans, thumbs are a privilege we often take for granted. We also breathe due to unconscious action controlled by the automatic nervous system so we don't even have to think about it. In this chapter we analyze the development of human-like characteristics such as the respiratory system and phalanges. Shubin explores the origins and relationship of species with limbs and lungs. His understanding of amphibious development and their respiratory system allowed further comprehension of their anatomy and bone structure. Shubin began to see the change from the early fish like Eusthenopteron (modern bone structure) to the Lepidosiren paradoxa (respiratory structure) to lungfish (combination of both). In his discovery, the Tiktaalik he also found the similar "one bone-two bone-lotsa blobs-fingers" structure just in a fin. Shubin also mentions Darwin theory and his discoveries to support it. This truly makes me wonder about the evolution process and whether we really developed from monkeys/gorillas or from fish.