Chapter 5: Getting ahead

One thing that I found interesting about this chapter was the similarities between shark embryos and human embryos. As Shubin explained on pg 90, every head on every animal from a shark to a human shares those four arches in development. And he goes on the next page describing the point-by-point comparison between our human heads and those of sharks. Before reading this part, I would have never imagined that sharks were in any way similar to us. However, Shubin thoroughly explains in this chapter on how sharks develop through their arches in a similar way that human arches do. The pictures on pg 91 was very helpful in understanding this because it displayed the obvious similarity between us and sharks. Also, in pg 88, the diagram also helped me understand how these small arches develop into the parts of our face and how each one of them grow into different functions. And as Shubin quoted on pg 93, 'Our head may look incredibly complicated, but it is built from a simple and elegant blueprint.' This really summed up his explanations, understanding how human blueprints are in a way, very similar to many other creatures.