Fossil preparators Fred Mullison and Bob Masek discovered that Tiktaalik is one of these fish. Most fish have a very different structure in their fins, but certain fish have a very simple limb structure that matches land animals. In the 1800s, the anatomist Richard Owens found that all land animal limbs have the same basic bone structure as the human arm, even if the limb looks radically different on the surface. Shubin and the team decide to name the specimen Tiktaalik roseae.Ĭhapter Two focuses on hands, one of the most complex anatomical structures in the entire animal kingdom, and a hallmark of the human species. Over the next two years, Shubin and his team examine the fossil and find that it straddles the barrier between water animals and land animals. In 2004, Steve Gatesy, a member of Shubin’s team, finds a fossil fish of a species that has never been seen before. Jenkins lead a team through these tough conditions. A field expedition to the Arctic presents many logistical challenges, but Shubin, Daeschler, and Farish A.

Shubin and Daeschler began looking to mount an Arctic expedition to a region of the Canadian Arctic that has similar rocks to Pennsylvania. They find a small shoulder bone of a hynerpeton, an early amphibian from the Devonian Period whose fossils have also been found in Alaska and the Yukon. Shubin starts looking in his hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with one of his paleontology students, Ted Daeschler. Based on the layers where fish and amphibians have been found, Shubin should look for rocks that are 375 million years old if he wants to find fossils of animals that bridge the divide between water creatures and land creatures. The fossil record generally follows a progression from the oldest fossils in the deepest rock layers to the most recent fossils in the higher layers. The ancient fish he finds-when they are from the right period during the transition between water and land creatures-give valuable insights into the early stages of human skull, neck, and limb development. In the summer, Shubin goes to rocky cliffs of the Arctic Circle to look for fossils. Fossils are the only way to see the past of every animal alive today and understand the development of the human body. The summer after he taught this course, he discovered a fossil fish from 375 million years ago that reframes the transition between fish and land animals. Neil Shubin, the author and narrator, opens the book with a story about his experience teaching a human anatomy course at the University of Chicago, even though his degree and research has been primarily in paleontology.

My inner fish