Ears

This chapter in the beginning was actually very interesting as it virtually brought us into the human anatomy, describing the skull and the "inner ear"deep inside very clearly, along with his vivid descriptions that helped me understand just how the ears work.

I was surprised mostly by the inner ear, aside from the fact that the middle ear can distinguish mammals from other creatures. The middle ear depicted to me just how our bodies change to its surroundings as the middle ear blueprint diverged from its ancestor because some of the "descendants of fish began to walk"; hearing is very different on land than is in the sea.

What really amazed me about the complexity of the human body, was the complexity and the functions of the inner ear. His analogies, in this case a statue of liberty snow globe, were again extremely helpful. I never would have thought that the inner ear was maintaining our sense of balance and such, just by "fluid-filled sacs with tiny rocks". Another point that Shubin made which surprised me was when he stated that "the whole system is [...] connected to our eye muscles via connections in our brain", as he gave an example that we all understood; in fact i got out of my seat and tried moving my head while looking at the same point. In this chapter I also learned how fish always darted away before, which was always a mystery. Personally, this is my favorite chapter especially as it makes me realize what I always thought was nothing great.

Lastly this chapter