Tag: Your Inner Fish

Your Inner Voice

Al Denelsbeck

I have no photos to illustrate this, because I never stopped to take any – I know, a sorry state of affairs for someone who calls himself a photographer. So you’ll just have to contend with my narrative. Or, you know, skip it and go to a site with pichers…

For family reasons, I had to do a rather abrupt trip to New York, and for poor planning and gambling reasons, I ended up doing it as a driving trip rather than a flying one, even more abruptly (like, a few hours notice.) On the trip up, I was on a relatively tight timetable, but on the return leg a few days later I had a little more time to play – not a lot, mind you, and it required delaying my arrival home if I spent any of it, which I was ultimately disinclined to do. Right now I’m faintly regretting this decision.

I had to travel through the edge of the Catskills mountain range, nothing too dire, but definitely a surfeit of hilly regions. On quite a few portions of the trip, large areas of rock had been blasted away (literally, with dynamite) to present a more level driving surface – not level by any measurement of a bubble in green fluid, but not as far away from it as the original terrain had been. This meant that, very often, I was driving past steep and staggered rock faces, the walls of the manmade valley for the road itself. The weather was cold, and many of these walls sported frozen waterfalls, the evidence of a lot of water seeping directly out of the faces between layers of rock. It might have been a lot more picturesque with a bit of sun, but this was still upstate New York during December, so the sky was resolutely overcast (one of the many traits that made me move away from the state.)

Further south into Pennsylvania, the sun managed to break free, and at one point I was looking at the terrain with some curiosity. This was a land, not exactly of rolling hills, but the kind of mountains you find in kids’ drawings: sharp peaks sporadically placed, very steep though not very high, perhaps a few hundred meters. And virtually no ‘ranges’ either, no ridges or lines, just points sticking out of the landscape. I looked sharply at one that I drove past, because the sides rose at something very close to a 45° angle, remarkably steep, yet still bearing a thick carpet of presently-denuded trees. I had to wonder exactly how something like that formed; I knew that mountain ranges tend to be collision zones of tectonic plates, but hills like this are more often large areas of erosion-resistant rock remaining behind while millennia of water carried away anything softer surrounding it. I also wasn’t far from glacial deposits, but in my experience and limited education, they also tended to be linear in nature. These sporadic and singular hills were a mystery to me.

And suddenly, I remembered Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin, the account of finding the transitional species between fish and leg-having things. The initial finds of some promising body structures, in fossil form of course, had occurred in a roadcut in Pennsylvania, so chosen because the entire region was made of deposits from a delta within the Devonian era – just the kind of place a fish deciding to check out the land would like. Now, when we talk about what kind of era forms the foundation of some geology, we’re talking the bedrock, which is usually under meters of topsoil (and perhaps glacial deposits,) so just picking a spot and digging is ridiculously labor-intensive. Which is where the roadcuts come in, because these are areas where not only the overlying soil has been tripped away, but nice cuts down through layers of rock have been made, with new portions eroding away all the time under the onslaught of the elements (like icy waterfalls.) Plus they’re remarkably convenient right alongside public access roads. So searching in the rubble within these cuts allowed for easy access to countless exposed time periods. And it was in one such cut that a colleague of Shubin’s found the pre-scapula which fostered the expeditions that would eventually find Tiktaalik. I wasn’t sure where this find actually took place, but I knew it was someplace in western Pennsylvania, which I wasn’t too far from right as I remembered all of this, and the bedrock should stretch across a significant region anyway.

The immediate thought was to pick a likely cut and stop, and spend just ten minutes poking around to see what I could find. I wasn’t thinking that I would find Tiktaalik or anything related, but just finding something would be cool enough – I don’t have much access to fossil fields of any kind, and I’m fascinated by them. Ten minutes wouldn’t take too long from the trip. The other side of the coin, however, was that I still had eight solid hours of driving ahead of me at this point, at least half of that after night fell – and the tail-end of it would be into the aftermath of the winter storm that had hit my home region. But I was also considering that I would pick a handy spot along the way to simply stop and overnight there, breaking the trip up, getting some rest, and allowing conditions at home to improve.

And while all of this was going through my head, the car rolled on, and I scoped out any rock faces that I passed on my side of the road. I wasn’t after bare rock, but a rubble field, someplace where any fossils might already have broken free from the rock matrix and be sitting there waiting to be found, taken home, given a good meal and a place to curl up. Many of the spots weren’t up to snuff, composed of pieces larger than my head, not nice pocketable fossil size. And then I passed a spot liberally strewn with gravel, nice small fragments about the same size as any fossil might be, the ideal conditions, or at least as far as I could judge in passing.

And I didn’t stop. The bulk of the trip ahead of me weighed too heavily, and the implied inertia of the car just carried me beyond. Even though it was extremely unlikely that I would ever be in this area again, even though I had a relatively open timetable and no one else in the car to accommodate, I passed on the opportunity.

After returning home, I started doing a little research into where Shubin and his team had made their find. I already knew the book hadn’t been specific about the location, but elsewhere I had come across something more detailed, and I started trying to pull it up again. It didn’t take much research to find this article (written by one of the people over there on the sidebar,) which provided a little detail into the locations. The pre-scapula had been found along State Road 120, which at its closest point fell a little over 20 kilometers from my path, though it stretched away towards the west. And then I read at the beginning of the very next paragraph:

Route 15 provided another bonanza.

Route 15 was the road that I was actually on while dithering about whether I should stop and examine the talus or not. Well, shit. I’d taken it from the state line all the way down to Harrisburg, so it was very likely I’d driven right past the very spot where they’d found a pile of fossils. Now, again, these weren’t Tiktaalik or anything close, since they fell a little too late in development – you might say they were Tiktaalik’s great grandchildren. But still…

I’m not kicking myself too seriously here. I ended up doing a hard push and driving the whole way home that evening, running on too little food or sleep, but not having to worry about anything else the next day. And chances are, if I’d stopped to look for fossils I wouldn’t have found anything anyway, since fossil ‘veins’ tend to be very narrow and sporadic, so the time was probably spent best the way it was. Yet I’ll always wonder.

I said I had no pictures, but what the hell – here’s Google Street View for one of the many spots that might have held promise, just to give you an idea. You can even see grey stains from the seeping water that would create those frozen waterfalls that I’d passed.

Google Street View of talus along road cut, Route 15 Pennsylvania

Fish and reptiles and monkeys, oh my!

Al Denelsbeck2 Comments

I have learned that part two of the aforementioned PBS series, this one titled Your Inner Reptile, will be airing Wednesday April 16 at 10 PM, on PBS of course. Local listings may vary, but it does seem like they’re running this weekly.

You also haven’t missed out if you didn’t get the chance to see Your Inner Fish, the first part – it can be viewed directly on PBS’s site by clicking right here. My understanding is this is supposedly restricted to US viewers, but you can get around this by using a proxy service. Since I have not ever attempted this myself, I cannot guide you on it, but a websearch should reveal how this works.

I will reiterate that I found part one excellent, one of the best science programs I’ve seen, and the book is pretty captivating itself. Gather the kids, nuke the popcorn, get out your giant foam tetrapod fin (well, for the TV program anyway – it might make turning the book’s pages a little tricky.) Go check out the interactive website, too. And if you’re a teacher, this is definitely a worthwhile series to get the class involved in.

I’ll throw out a little quibble, though: the use of fish, reptile, and monkey should be considered popular usage for convenience, but not scientifically accurate. The ancestral stages that we passed through on our long journey to Homo sapiens may have borne a superficial resemblance to these modern classifications, but today’s fish and reptiles and monkeys are just as much evolved from these ancestors as we are. Evolution didn’t halt or stagnate for any of them, and no modern species has existed unchanged for thousands or millions of years. It’s simply that, in some cases, the environments that our ancestral and our modern species had adapted to were fairly similar. While a shark and a tuna are similar in many ways (and commonly classified as “fish,”) they actually diverged from a common ancestor before the tetrapods like Tiktaalik, which in turn led to all four-limbed species including us. Tiktaalik may or may not be our direct ancestor – we might never know for sure – but it is an example of the development of supporting fins. Tiktaalik might be one of several cousins that existed at the time, and it was another cousin that was really our ancestor, all descended from a species we have not discovered yet. Fossils are rare things, providing tiny spots in history rather than a chapter-by-chapter saga – but, the progression of traits and timelines that we’ve found have been exactly what we should expect from the theories of natural selection and common descent, so this sporadic sampling is not a weakness in the slightest, and no other plausible theory exists to explain why this progression is so plainly evident.

That’s enough digression – go watch the program.

Program review: Your Inner Fish

Al Denelsbeck

I threatened to do this, and after watching I felt more than obligated, so let’s talk about Your Inner Fish, a video program from PBS.

This one-hour program by Tangled Bank Studios is hosted by Neil Shubin, a self-described ‘fish anatomist’ from the University of Chicago, and based on the book of the same name. If you’ve read the book, the video will hold few surprises – but that isn’t why we watch videos, is it? And for the visual augmentation that is provided by such, PBS did an excellent job. CGI is present in a lot of things anymore, and ridiculously overdone in many cases, but here it was used judiciously and with great effect. Most of the program is straight video – interviews, set pieces, location shoots, and dramatizations – but mixed among them all, often overlaid on top, are graphics that illustrate the concepts and anatomy in a compelling and often dramatic way, but without going overboard at all. Fossils can be very hard things to merely spot, much less ascertain the details of, so the glowing outlines delineating their presence and shape are much appreciated, and manage never to get too obtrusive or distracting. Meanwhile, the virtual long-track across the curving tree of descent is both illustrative and expressive, taking a relatively simple subject and giving it a nice bit of flair.

We travel to the road cut in Pennsylvania, where the first discovery was made, and thence to remote and forbidding Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic, seeing firsthand the conditions that greet fossil-hunters (and many other scientists.) But we also see the lab work, watching skate embryos swimming within their egg cases and the beating hearts of unhatched chickens. Overall, the visualizations kept pace with the details, always giving us something to see along with the information imparted by the narrative.

There were a few small exceptions. The actual developments spurred by the implantation of the sonic hedgehog genes were graphically portrayed, but not shown as real photos. There is an illustration of the tendons of the human hand, but not of the counterpart in Tiktaalik, despite indicating the broad attachment points for such. These are minor and largely up to personal preference; others might have wanted to see something else illustrated, or felt that what was included was more than adequate.

Another minor point was the solitary perspective, only noticeable early in the program. Shubin announces that, as a scientist, he looks at people differently, and in a few other places he speaks of what “I” do, in circumstances where these are shared by not just the scientific community (whatever that is,) but everyone who even holds a strong interest in the topics. It was a slightly uncomfortable distinction, separating the scientist from the viewer, and served no purpose, but thankfully it was brief (and not noticeable in the book.) Shubin is an entertaining and enthusiastic speaker though, so this is a minor detraction in an otherwise positive presentation.

The anti-evolutionist will not be convinced, unfortunately – a one-hour program covering a lot of territory isn’t going to provide the kind of rigor necessary, but then again, nothing would be adequate for a large percentage of creationists anyway; their desire is for self-indulgence, not real understanding. I’m not coming from a perspective that will allow me to judge, but overall, I got the impression that what was given in the program was a pretty enticing taste of what can be found, indeed in the book, but also with a greater study of the subject matter through other sources. It is one of the best ways I’ve seen science presented, beating out both incarnations of Cosmos, and appears well able to spur greater interest in pursuing some of these subjects. It also helps that PBS is marketing the book right alongside the DVD as a package.

There are two more installments to come, Your Inner Reptile and Your Inner Monkey, and right at the moment it does not appear that PBS has scheduled these yet – I will try to keep an eye on them and throw out an alert when they’re due to air. I will do the same if this particular episode gets run again. If you’re not inclined to wait (and definitely shouldn’t trust little old unconnected me to catch the later episodes,) there’s always the DVD – it might seem a little pricey, but this is PBS, and part of that fee is going towards supporting such programs free of idiotic commercial interruptions. Whatever it takes, however, I urge you to check it out – I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

Too cool, part 22: Your Inner Fish on PBS

Al Denelsbeck

Damn, this is what comes from being out of the loop as much as I am. While I never hear about what every chuzzlewit celebrity is up to (which is a major plus,) I also don’t hear about promising new programs in time to give adequate notice. Case in point: Your Inner Fish, airing tonight on PBS.

That name should sound familiar, considering that I reviewed the book of the same name a few years back (and you’ve undoubtedly read every post I’ve ever made.) The author, Neil Shubin, is the host of this show, the first of a three part series – following behind are Your Inner Reptile and Your Inner Monkey. The first airs tonight (April 9th) at 10 PM Eastern Time on PBS. And I have to say, if the preview and Shubin’s writing are any indication, it should be pretty damn good.

UPDATE: I have no idea what they’re doing, but the video clip I tried to embed has gone back and forth in the space of an hour, currently giving me a “no longer available” error. If you get that, just click on the link further down to go directly to their site, which I highly recommend, since the previews are great.

Check out all of the clips on their site – it certainly doesn’t look like they skimped on production values.

Anyone familiar with hominid fossils will instantly recognize the incomplete skeleton they’re laying out in several places in that clip: it’s Lucy of course, Australopithecus afarensis, and yes, that’s really all we have of that particular specimen, which is actually quite a bit for that time period – for many others, we have only a handful of fragments, and a few even have just one bit. It’s easy to question whether one bit can tell us anything, but if it doesn’t match anything else we have, then it tells us that it likely belongs to a whole new species. By the way, Lucy is not the only Au. afarensis specimen we have, though it was for a while – we actually have bones from ten individuals, including a toddler.

Anyway, check out the program! I may be back with a review myself…

Book Review: Your Inner Fish

Al Denelsbeck

In a previous review, I talked about a book that dealt with the concerted efforts by creationists to discredit evolution, and the book was specific to the goal, but not aimed towards greater familiarization with evolution itself. Enter Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin, which tackles that aspect more specifically.

Shubin opens with some background of fossil hunting, leading quickly into the recent find that his team is best known for: Tiktaalik roseae, a species from 375 million years ago that shows critical evidence of the grand migration of animal life from the seas onto land. Tiktaalik was a targeted find, in that Shubin’s team knew that an intermediary stage between finned animals and ones with supporting limbs (tetrapods) should exist, in a particular timeframe, and likely found in areas that used to be estuaries and rivers. After having found a tantalizing fragment in a road cut in Pennsylvania, they approached the problem systematically, searching for geology that would fit all of their criteria, and mounted several expeditions to a remote spot on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, a Canadian territory. They found exactly what they were looking for, proof of careful planning and the predictive power of evolutionary development, while also relating just what fossil hunting entails, which includes patience, experience, and a meticulous attention to detail.

But Shubin is at heart an educator, which is more than simply a teacher or professor, and Tiktaalik serves as a springboard for much larger topics. Beginning with the appearance of a new limb form that holds for all mammals today, Shubin lays out an exceptionally detailed account of numerous traits within various species, including humans. He gives a great accounting of the scientific method as hunches and suppositions are subjected to careful testing, as well as building on the findings of countless scientists of the past. Through careful explanations with consideration of layman’s terms over scientific, he provides a wealth of information showing the commonality of many species, leading irresistibly to shared ancestry. The reader learns of the difference between not just the appearance, but the functions, of reptile and mammal teeth, and a key point where the two diverged from the ancestors – and how this can be told from the wear pattern on a solitary tooth. Indeed, anatomy plays a key role in determining the functions of fossilized animals we can never hope to see moving on their own, as bone thicknesses and even the shape of skull fragments tell tales about flexibility, diet, and nerve branch similarity to species currently in existence.

There is a fascinating section on embryology, where the initial development of diverse species such as sharks and hominids, of which humans are classed, bear a striking resemblance. While this is an indication of a common ancestor close to 400 million years ago, Shubin ensures that it’s not left at that. He also talks about genes and how they have almost identical functions in many diverse species, and how this was even discovered. In one experiment by researcher Randy Dahns, a gene called Sonic hedgehog (no, really) was grafted onto a specific section of a skate’s embryo during a key period in its development, resulting in the development of rudimentary digits – fingers – in the skate:

Not only did the rods [finger bones] end up looking different from one another, they responded to Sonic hedgehog, much as fingers do, on the basis of how close they were to the Sonic hedgehog bead; the closer rods developed a different shape from the ones farther away. To top matters off, it was the mouse protein that did the job so effectively in the skates.

The whole section details the specific job that genes play in embryological development, even down to the shape and position of “thumbs,” and most especially how those genes work exactly the same even when transplanted into diverse species. The body plans of nearly all species on the planet use many of the same exact genes to get started. Shubin also returns several times to the enigmatic bones of mammalian ears, which have ancestry in a wide variety of skeletal forms and developed gradually from jaw and skull structures to specialized instruments for wide-frequency hearing, for those species that would most benefit from such.

While the book is certainly not adequate to explain all that we know about evolution, and indeed doesn’t actually talk about the mechanisms of selection, it is overwhelming when presenting the evidence that this has indeed taken place. The reader who comes away from this book unconvinced is only guilty of abject denial. Other readers, without a distinct background in biology, might actually be startled at the number of factors that Shubin relates, tying us together with our distant aquatic ancestors (and further) in appropriate recognition of the title. One missing facet that I would have liked to have seen addressed, personally, is the predictive power of this knowledge, and how it applies to modern medicine and biology to show that it is not merely historical background, but functioning and active science. While this may have been outside of Shubin’s expertise, it would have been a powerful addition to the book.

Because of the amount of information, I wouldn’t recommend this book for adolescent or young-adult readers overall; while adequately illustrated, the text is just a little dense, reflective of the meticulous way that scientific progress is made. This is not to say that the book is hard to read – Shubin couches things in everyday terms, and avoids using scientific jargon where it is unnecessary. At the same time, he provides the subtle message of how science progresses, including the background stories of our previous, now-abandoned theories and how new findings changed them. Besides the evidence for evolution, the reader also receives some indication of how we establish and correct our knowledge base, and how much of this has happened in the past century. We are in a golden age of discovery, and it’s fascinating.

Shubin also touches on a constant mistake of the media, that of referring to fossil species as “links,” missing or otherwise. The fossil record provides only pinpricks of life from any given period, and species do not cleanly develop in a line, but branch off, spread out, and often die off. Tiktaalik, then, might be a direct ancestor, but the probability is exceptionally low. It is instead evidence of species developing a new body plan that allowed life on land to develop, and may simply be one of dozens or hundreds of species that came ashore over a period of thousands to millions of years. That’s part of what the genetic record supports: so many species have such similar backgrounds that the development of weight-supporting limbs, for instance, might have taken place several times due to the same genetic changes, or small variations thereof. It’s a bit as if human descendants in the future, with no knowledge of what we are like now, found chimpanzee, gorilla, orang-utan, and human remains – only one leads to those descendants, but all have much the same structure.

Much of the charm of this book is the ability, within every chapter, to make the reader blink and say, “That’s cool!” It is an excellent example of why science should be more popular in this country, and why it’s so useful. But it’s not simply about popularizing science; it also shows the painstaking research and careful experiments that go into it, and pays homage to the countless people who have contributed, in large or small increments, to what we know today. The reader comes out of it with a wealth of understanding, and a newfound respect for the process and practitioners. Definitely worth the time – it’s a very memorable book.

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No, I did not abuse the book for the illustrating image – this is simply the wonders of Photoshop.