"We would never have scales, feathers, or breasts if we didn't have teeth in the first place."
This phrase really caught my attention when I was reading Your Inner Fish. Prior to reading the book, I had no idea how much teeth had to do with paleontology and the connections that are made with our ancestors. Not only did he describe the connections teeth have between different species and how they are related but also how important teeth development along side the development of other tissues and traits is. I really like how this quotation allows the connection between different species and traits such as having breasts or feather still can be related by the commonality of teeth development. I had always heard on television criminal shows how helpful teeth were in identify people and allowed investigators to understand a lot about bodies they found, but never did I fully understand what this meant until reading Your Inner Fish. The way Shubin writes is very clear and helps me understand and relate things in my life that I never knew had connections before.
I really like this post Leah! I can relate to watching those shows and not really understanding why teeth were particularly looked at in order to identify a corpse. I also didn't give teeth as much credit as they deserve for being so important when looking at evolutionary relationships! I think that Shubin is definitely making concepts that were unclear before, more understandable.
ReplyDeleteHey Leah! I remember reading this book in high school and having the same revelation. It is really interesting to see how such diverse organisms can be connected through one morphological trait. This really demonstrates how interconnected organism can be
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