Ch. 8-11 Last Post :)

Chapter 8: This chapter really supported Shubin's idea that humans evolved from fish. It described so much about how genes get passed down through the generations and get modified as they go. Also, the part about how the primitive fish had receptors of both water and air genes showed that it may actually be a fish that began it all. It was interesting to learn about how the sense of smell works and what actually goes on inside of our bodies whenever we smell something. The last sentence made a strong conclusion on how important our sense of smell and other traits are in seeing the past.

Chapter 9: When Shubin saw the salamander fossil with the eyes still on it, I was amazed. I never knew that fossils could have the eyes remaining on it. It was cool to read how all animals have similar things going on within the eye but have some differences, changing their abilities to see. When compared with scallops or limpets, human eyes have much more structures in them, letting us see the objects, or the Hostess cupcake, more clearly. Like the last chapter, it was fascinating that there was an ancient animal that had both types of eyes. Gehring's work with the eyeless gene was also very disturbing but interesting.

Chapter 10: First of all, I didn't know that we had so many parts to the ear, and I never would have guessed that the inner ear came from the jaw bone of a reptile. It was also interesting to hear that humans are the only animals with outer ears. When I read it, I realized that it was very obviously true. The snow globe analogy helped explain the ways the ear works in a very simple way. It is amazing how fish can detect changes in the water with the hair and fluids.

Chapter 11: This chapter was the most interesting chapter of all in my opinion. I liked how it related back to the first chapter but elaborated on it and explained the relationships between generations more. It was also very interesting to learn about our many past lives and how they affect our lives today. This chapter really explained how everything that people go through in the present can be traced back to very different animals as far back as millions of years ago. While learning about parts of our own bodies, I also learned about the structures of other animals and how we are closely related in many ways. This book was really interesting and fun to read, but I'm still very glad that I'm finally done with it.