CH. 5 Getting Ahead

This week's chapter had the biggest impact on me by far. Sure, the teeth and hands are important to understanding our Inner Fish, but for me, reading about the importance of our heads and its complicated structure was very exciting. Still, the downside to chapter five would have to be reading about how Shubin dissected the heads (it felt very...detailed). In the beginning, I fully understood why our heads are the heaviest parts of our bodies seeing that there are so many different components contained in such a small space. It was fascinating how embryos that look like globs, could form and mature to take the form of a human and have all the distinct traits of one, no matter how complex.

I like how Shubin introduced his understanding of our heads before heading into his explanation of how human heads are connected to those of animals. The diagram he provided on page 92 was of big help because after reading about all of the different aspects, I began getting confused so the picture helped clear things up. It's interesting how in this chapter, we get compared to such different kinds of animals such as sharks and worms. My viewpoint on these creatures has changed a lot now that I know that I do share some similarities with them (although it is a bit of a strange concept to grasp). Even though I now feel like we humans have some sort of connection to all of the creatures of this world, I'm fully convinced that Shubin will bring a new surprising comparison to us in next week's reading.