Your Inner Fish … An engaging look at our vertebrate ancestry
by WALTER GILBERTI
http://youtu.be/nn0bhwDn7bw
“Your Inner Fish” is a three-part series currently being aired on Public Television (10 pm EST). Narrated by fish paleontologist Neil Shubin and based on his book of the same name, the program explores the evolution of the vertebrate body structure, and how the anatomy of the human body expresses this lineage; first from ancient fish, then extinct reptiles and finally mammals.
The final episode, subtitled “Your Inner Monkey,” will air next Wednesday and will no doubt detail and explain the obvious anatomical commonalities between monkeys, apes and humans. With recent developments in comparative genomics, the study of the evolution of life chronicled in every organism’s DNA has triggered a revolution in how we classify organisms. In fact, there are scientists who believe some terms that are now perceived as archaic or colloquial, such a “pongid” (a term denoting the great apes) and even “reptile” and Class Aves (birds) need to be replaced in favor of a more scientifically grounded taxonomy.
Shubin is an important figure in this movement. In 2004, he led a team of researchers who uncovered on Canada’s Ellesmere Island an amazing trove of extinct sarcopterygians (lobe-finned fish) that were clearly transitional in the evolution of the first tetrapods, four-limbed land vertebrates. The fossil, dubbed Tiktaalik in the Inuit tongue, created a sensation. An essential link in the transition from fish to amphibian had been discovered. Shubin declares, “Here was an animal Darwin had predicted.”
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In his On the Origin of Species published in 1859, Charles Darwin posited the common ancestry of all life, traceable down through the eons of geological time. Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection became the theoretical foundation of all biology, which would have otherwise remained a disparate science devoid of cohesion.
During the course of the 20th century, Darwin’s brilliant work was enhanced by the emerging sciences of genetics and molecular biology, which, in concert with continuing developments in the fields of comparative anatomy, embryology and paleontology, have resulted in what has become known as the “great synthesis” or the “synthetic theory of evolution.”
Shubin draws upon all these areas of research in his serious yet light-hearted appreciation of our evolutionary heritage. It is amusing to see Shubin’s evolutionary day-dreaming come to life on the Chicago El, as one of the passengers sprouts a hairy tail, another a scaly integument and a projecting tongue, while strange long-extinct tetrapods amble down the aisle.
In fact, our fish ancestry is undeniable. They were the first vertebrates to have a bony skeleton, the first to have their brains encased within a protective cranium. Thus we, that is human beings, can be considered part of the craniate clade. Cladistics is a method of classifying organisms that shows evolutionary lineages according to the appearance of derived traits.
World Socialist Web Site for more
Just how fishy are you? More about your inner animal
by KALLIOPI MONOYIOS
Last night the final episode of the 3-part series of PBS’s adaptation of Neil Shubin’s book Your Inner Fish aired in most of the country (although some PBS stations have delayed the last episode until next week… If you didn’t catch the series, you can stream them online for a short period here.) If tweets are any indication, the series was extremely well-received; the hashtag #InnerFishPBS topped the trends during the East Coast and Midwest airings all three nights.
I’ve already mentioned I had no involvement in the television production so I can say this with no need for modesty: what stood out in this series were the stunning graphics and animations. But the visuals didn’t stop with the three episodes – PBS pumped out some really entertaining tidbits and graphics during the shows via Twitter. If you were intently watching your television screen and missed the additional graphics and quizzes, I’ve concatenated them here via storify. If you’re experiencing Inner Fish withdrawal, you may also want to check out the extensive website PBS created with more interactive graphics, teaching tools and resources galore. More programming like this, please, PBS!
Scientific American for more