Chapter 2: Getting a Grip

This chapter allowed me to gain an insight into how our human body, especially our bones, vessels, and nerves work in our hands. The relation between human hands and fish limbs and fins, caught my attention allowing me to ask questions such as, what do our hands look like from inside? Or, how did our hands evolve into what there are today? When Shubin started explaining about what he found when cutting the cadaver, I realized that our human body is more complex then what we perceive it as. As Shubin continued to talk about his and Ted Daeschler’s findings on Route 15 north of Williamsport, I learnt that there is a connection between human hands and fish fins, in which they both contain tiny bones. This was quite surprising to me, but as Shubin explained the discovery of the Tiktaalik, and Owen’s one bone-two bones-losta blobs-digits arrangement, I understood how our human hands can be traced back to the Tiktaalik fish. However, I was still uncertain as how humans were able to walk unlike the fish, and my question was answered when Shubin explained that “all our extraordinary capabilities arose from basic components evolved in ancient fish and other creatures”, (Shubin, 43).