Chapter 1: Finding Your Inner Fish

When i received this book in the mail, i kind of got excited (i don't know why, but getting books excites me). Then i stared at it for a while, wanting to read it yet not wanting to at the same time. I checked the blog to see how many people have done their entries already, and to see what they had to say about it. A majority of the posts were about how interesting and fascinating this book was, so i decided to start reading it.

The beginning of the book was kind of boring, with him talking about the different types of rocks and how to find fossils. Also he talked about the layers of the rocks and how you have to look in the right time period. I already knew most of that stuff. What i did like, however, was how he tried to relate the idea of placing the animals in subsets of where you can find them in the rock layers by comparing animals in a zoo, and the "Russian nesting dolls." Then he started talking about his adventures, and that got me more interested in reading. I didn't realize how long it took to find fossils, or how careful you have to treat them. Also that he had to undergo harsh conditions for many months. But what really caught my interest was him explaining how the Tiktaalik is intermediate between fish and land-living animals. The idea of evolution has always confused me, and i never would have believed that we could have come from fish. But with characteristics in between fish and land-living animals, i'm starting to question whether or not we did come from fish.

I thought this book would be informational and factual, but Neil Shubin makes learning interesting by talking about his adventures and relating his research to everyday situations. Though it was only a short read, i have already learned a lot, and hope to learn much more.

-Shay Fajardo