We were staring at the origin of a piece of our own bodies inside this 375-million-year-old fish. We had a fish with a wrist. — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“The immediate thing that strikes you when you see the inside of the hand is its compactness. The ball of your thumb, the thenar eminence, contains four different muscles. Twiddle your thumb and tilt your hand: ten different muscles and… — 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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 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
“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 Image
“The first hard hydroxyapatite-containing body parts were teeth. Hard bones arose not to protect animals, but to eat them.” — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
