“Whole batteries of genes are turned on and off during fly development, and this pattern of gene activity serves to demarcate the… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
With respect to the ZPA, what kind of digit develops depends on how close the digit is to the source of Sonic… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“Thanks to their hardness, teeth are often the best-preserved animal part we find in the fossil record for many time periods.” — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“In a perfectly designed world —one with no history— we would not have to suffer everything from hemorrhoids to cancer.” — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“Fully 3 percent of our entire genome is devoted to genes for detecting different odors. Each of these genes makes a receptor… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“Fossils are one of the major lines of evidence that we use to understand ourselves.” — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“Look at the first arch in a human and a shark, and you find a very similar state of affairs: jaws.” — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“The oldest many-celled fossil is over 600 million years old. The earliest fossil with a three-boned middle ear is less than 200… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“So here is the trick to designing a new fossil expedition: find rocks that are of the right age, of the right… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“Interested in the origin of mammals? Go to rocks from the period called the Early Mesozoic; geochemistry tells us that these rocks… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“In areas close to the ZPA, where there is a high concentration of this molecule, cells would respond by making a pinky.… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“There is strong geological evidence that the period from 380 million to 365 million years ago is the critical time. The younger… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“At conception, we start as a single cell that contains all the DNA needed to build our body. The plan for that… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“... two little patches of tissue essentially control the development of the pattern of bones inside limbs. A strip of tissue at… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“But why live in these environments at all? What possessed fish to get out of the water or live in the margins?… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
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… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“The key to tooth development is that an interaction between these two layers of tissue, an outer sheet of cells and an… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“Ideal to pre-serve fossils are sedimentary rocks: limestones, sandstones, silt-stones, and shales. Compared with volcanic and metamorphic rocks, these are formed by… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“No sane paleontologist would ever claim that he or she had discovered "The Ancestor." Think about it this way: What is the… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“... two little patches of tissue essentially control the development of the pattern of bones inside limbs. A strip of tissue at the extreme… — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“In areas close to the ZPA, where there is a high concentration of this molecule, cells would respond by making a pinky. In the… — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“All the genetic switches that make fingers, arm bones, and toes do their thing during the third to eighth week after conception.” — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“My building was constructed in 1896, and the utilities reflect an odd design that has been jerry-rigged further with each renovation. If you want… — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“So here is the trick to designing a new fossil expedition: find rocks that are of the right age, of the right type (sedimentary),… — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“Our hundreds of useless olfactory genes are left over from mammal ancestors who relied more heavily on the sense of smell to survive ...… — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“The retina absorbs the light via sensitive light-gathering cells ... In humans these cells make up about 70 percent of all the sensory cells… — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“Some fish, for example the lungfish, have the one bone at the base. Other fish, for example Eusthenopteron, have the one bone–two bones arrangement.… — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“The key to tooth development is that an interaction between these two layers of tissue, an outer sheet of cells and an inner loose… — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“The molecules that allow microbes to catch their prey and hold on to them are likely candidates for the molecules that form the rivet… — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“In a perfectly designed world —one with no history— we would not have to suffer everything from hemorrhoids to cancer.” — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“Whole batteries of genes are turned on and off during fly development, and this pattern of gene activity serves to demarcate the different regions… — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“The first hard hydroxyapatite-containing body parts were teeth. Hard bones arose not to protect animals, but to eat them.” — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“Tiktaalik has a shoulder, elbow, and wrist composed of the same bones as an upper arm, forearm, and wrist in a human. When we… — Neil Shubin Copy Share
“Our body dries out with every passing year; newborns are about 75 percent water, not much different from an average potato.” — Neil Shubin Copy Share
