Chapter 6: The Best-Laid (Body) Plans

This chapter, though being repetitive, was interesting because it went from explaining about how all animal embryos (fish, amphibian, and chicken) in the earliest of all stages are similar to comparing humans to flies and jellyfish. Also, the three all-important layers: the ectoderm (outer layer), the endoderm (middle layer), and the mesoderm (middle layer) was an interesting concept because I would never have thought that such an outrageous structure was possible even as an embryo. It was interesting because the tube-within-a-tube is something I never imagined to stay with us forever. Even though parts of the first few pages were constantly repetitive, every now and then, I read something that sent me in a shock mode. Another thing that honestly amazed me was the flies and human comparison. First, I didn't get the whole point of homeobox of the flies and how it can ever be related to the homeobox of humans. However, as I started to see the pictures and read the descriptions, I understood what Shubin was talking about. Ranging from comparing embryos of different animals to comparing humans to a relative of the jellyfish, the anemone, this chapter was actually quite interesting and for the first time, I understood what Shubin talked about.