Neil Shubin
Neil Shubin
Neil Shubinis an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer. He is the Robert R. Bensley Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, Associate Dean of Organismal Biology and Anatomy and Professor on the Committee of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago along with being the Provost of the Field Museum of Natural History. He is best known for his discovery of Tiktaalik roseae...
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth22 December 1960
functional major
Most of the major joints of the fin are functional in this fish.
archaic branch evolution
This is not some archaic branch of evolution. This is our branch of evolution. This is our wrist. This is the evolution of our neck.
beings cabinet challenge figure file filled human kinds questions static
The world is filled with puzzles, all kinds of interesting questions and it's our challenge to figure them out. It's not just like this static file cabinet of things that human beings know. It's ever expanding.
extent figure time took
It took a long time for us to figure out really the extent of what we had.
arctic bears carry eat food polar
Another thing to get used to in the Arctic is being in the food chain. There are polar bears there, and polar bears eat people. So we carry weapons.
arctic classic inside rocks tropical
Outside, it's a classic Arctic scene. But inside those rocks is a tropical world.
earliest functional major parts similar ways wrist
Most of the major joints of the fin are functional in this fish. The shoulder, elbow, and even parts of the wrist are already there and working in ways similar to the earliest land-living animals.
creature
Here is a creature with fins that can do push-ups.
fish shows surprising
It is a fish that shows a surprising combination of characteristics of land-living animals.
history includes land origin parts represents talk talking transition water
It represents the transition from water to land - the part of history that includes ourselves. When we talk about the fish's wrist, we're talking about the origin of parts of our own wrist.
begun crack sort
We've really only begun to sort of crack that spot.
few high uncovered
We did a few high fives when we uncovered the fossil, but there's only so much celebrating you can do in the Arctic.
party animal years
Take the entire 4.5-billion-year history of the earth and scale it down to a single year, with January 1 being the origin of the earth and midnight on December 31 being the present. Until June, the only organisms were single-celled microbes, such as algae, bacteria, and amoebae. The first animal with a head did not appear until October. The first human appears on December 31. We, like all the animals and plants that have ever lived, are recent crashers at the party of life on earth.
convoluted products
We were not designed rationally, but are products of a convoluted history.