Chapter 1

I found it extremely interesting on how the first chapter focuses on showing how we can use fossils to explain our own anatomy. Shubin helped readers through his novel by portraying his thoughts through multiple diagrams to provide visuals or a timeline. For example, his visual that traced arm bones from fish to humans helped me visualize the process of evolution; and it intrigued me that the bones were so similar even though I would have never thought that there was that much in common. The anatomy of fish, and how similar it is compared to us, it's amazing! I was already aware that, as humans, we evolved from animals that started out in the water, just like fish ancestors, but i was still shocked at how similar fish are to us. I also thought the Tiktaalik was cool because we could actually see our history as fish. Shubin did a terrific job at personalizing his work, and encompassing the reader with facts without coming off as another boring, old text book that teachers love to make us read. His style of writing allowed me to read this with ease, but, more imporantly, allowed me to actually retain the information he was trying to tell me. Like, next time I go to the zoo, I am going to keep in mind all the different kinds of fossils that lie all over the world and how they are all ancestors of this diverse environment...even though, the funny thing is, we make up less than one percent of all the species the world has ever hosted. All I can say is...the zoo will never be the same!