Chapter 2 Getting a Grip

Let me just start out with the fact that this chapter's title fits this chapter perfectly. This chapter was all about one thing..... HANDS!! This chapter starts out with Owen's idea and then went on to try to prove his theory. For example, we were presented with the lungfish and how it has a humerus, just like us. Shubin manages to incorporate the Tiktaalik, which he presented in the previous chapter, to this idea. He reveals to his readers that the Tiktaalik had shoulders, elbows and wrists, just like us. This fish had a wrist!! Yes, it shocked me too...something that is millions of years old has something as evolved as we have...wrists!! The Tiktaalik, which is 375 million years old, was able to do something that we are required to do in gym class....it could do push-ups!! This absolutely baffled me...such ancient fish had such similar characteristics to us. Then Shubin goes on to reveal a 380 million-year-old fish Eusthenopteron (which was a tongue twister...took me awhile to get through that name) that revealed the first bits of our upper arm and leg, it also had elbows and knees, however, they were facing in the same direction (kinda gross), just like when we grow and develop in the womb (but we rotate to give us the state of affairs we see today). When I think that it cannot get any more surprising, he mentions the amphibian Acanthostega, which is 365 million years old, which shows the first true fingers and toes. And the full complement of wrist and ankle bones found in a human hand or foot is seen with reptiles which are more than 250 million years old. That's crazy!! I just have one question for these people naming these creatures, why pick names that we cannot pronounce? And is there like a guide that I can follow in order to see if I'm pronouncing any of these names right?? Haha, oh well X) The names don't take away from the fact that this book is hard to put down. Onto the next chapter!!