Chapter Two

The beginning of the chapter immediately made me pay attention as Shubin spoke of dissecting a human. I began to think of how I would react to dissecting a human. I don't think that I would be able to handle it. Although the person would be dead, staring at someone's face as I cut into him/her would be too much for me to handle. Shubin made it more evident to me that becoming a surgeon is probably not the path which I should take in life in just a few paragraphs.

I found it extremely interesting that our bone structure could be so similar to creatures who lived hundreds of millions of years ago. Plus, those creatures did not walk, they were fish! Usually when thinking of a human's skeletal system, people do not think that it is so similar to that of a fish. However, through Owen's common plan for all limbs (one bone, followed by two bones, then little blobs, then fingers or toes) we see that many creatures can be traced back to each other through their similar bone structure.

Throughout this chapter, the most interesting piece of information was definitely discovering a fish could do a push up. Just as I was wondering why a fish would even need to do a push up, Shubin answered my question. As he explained how and why Tiktaalik did a push up I began to think how creatures' bodies adapt and are created to fit and survive in their habitats. For Tiktaalik, doing a push up was a survival mechanism just as walking is for humans.

As I read this book, I believe what Shubin is writing but there is a part of me that is having a hard time believing that we came from fish because of my faith. However, I am keeping an open mind and learning a lot from this book.