Inner Fish
I wrote this paper in 2017, w/in 5 hrs on a 5-hour energy and you can tell
We Have Evolved: An Analysis on, “Why Evolution is True” By Jerry A. Coyne
Abstract
The Webster dictionary defines as a theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations (Mish, 2012). In Why Evolution is True, evolution is described as life on earth evolving from a primitive species—perhaps a self-replicating molecule—that lived 3.5 billion years ago; it then branched out over time, throwing off many new and diverse species; and the mechanism for most (but not all) of evolutionary change is natural selection (Coyne, 2009, p. 3). That is a basic definition and there is so much written in between to be discovered. While reading, digesting, and evaluating “Why Evolution is True” by Jerry A. Coyne, we delve deeper into the process, discover the different, and explore which way the ancestors developed and why they diversified. Why is the Adam and Eve effect not a complete retort as to why evolution is not true? How do we explain the similarities of human species to other animal life?
In studying about evolution, we have come to a crossroad on what to believe by sight. One option has you to stand on faith; to come to an absolute conclusion. Another task you to ignore the imperfect design of creationism and ask solid questions about the plants and animals evolved from one modest, but soon to be complex organism.
What is Evolution
Chapter One: In the Beginning
How did we come to the theory of evolution? The process is simple, by using the scientific method. The steps are to make an observation, ask a question, create a hypothesis, make predictions and then test prediction. An observation is that adding baking soda to vinegar creates an immediate reaction and so you cannot get in place fast enough to record the reaction. How could you delay the reaction? One hypothesis would be to provide a temporary barrier to the reactant. Once you find a barrier, you would test the hypothesis. Like the scientific method, you do not have to follow the steps in this order.
In chapter one evolution is described as process of a species undergoing a genetic change over time. This change can happen over many generations, with it turning into something different. Evolution is a gradual process that does not happen overnight. It is a process that should continually correct itself and find its niche. This chapter talks about another part of evolutionary theory known as gradualism. The idea of gradualism states that it takes many generations to produce a considerable change. The next idea of evolution is speciation, which is the idea of organisms splitting from their ancestors. How did the birds evolve from the dinosaur? That question itself leads to the fourth idea of evolution of common ancestry. Finding the missing link from flying reptile to the feathered perched bird. Lastly is the process of natural selection. Over the course of the beginning of life these five ideas have contributed to the species that we have and do not have today.
Chapter 2: The Timing
It is all about timing with evolution. Not just waking up and deciding this plant or animal is needed here or for this.
The world is estimated to be about 4.6 billion years old (Coyne, pp. 26-27). That means all organisms, plant, and animal, were not just sitting in a cue waiting for a number. At 3.7 billion years in Earth’s timeline appears to start evolving. Something in Earth’s chemical make-up caused life to appear, and a “little” over a billion years later multicellular life appears at 2.1 billion years. Think about having to wait for your favorite television series to return following summer after only 1 heart pounding episode. That is how evolution began as; a waiting game. By the time the second season of life comes around, there is a chance for a spin off. A chance for the multicellular organisms to branch off and mature. What Mr. Shubin attempts to show is that there is evolutionary evidence when the links are found. When the right blocks are connected, there is a moment of lucidity.
The link is what Neil Shubin was looking for in his book, “Your Inner Fish”, the right building block to make the shift from prehistoric fish to land animals (Shubin, 2009). Shubin was looking for the right place for the right time. Understanding where to start is the second step of the evolution process. Shubin had to make an observation. That observation, according to Coyne is written in the rocks (Coyne, p. 20). When you think of rocks you think of either large immovable objects, objects to skip in a body of water, or something to kick along down the street. Nothing comes to mind that they would contain anything of importance. In chapter two of “Why Evolution is True” a closer look is made into to the how of evolution. How can we find the links for these blocks to be connected? That is in the fossil record. Fossils are contained in the strata, a layer of sedimentary rock. These layers are created by sediment on top of sediment being topped by more sediment. After about 4.6 billion years, one will be able to find something in the rocks (Coyne, pp. 32-33).
When an organism dies, fauna or flora, they must die in a place where they will be easily covered. The best place for this to happen would be the ocean because the plant or animal matter would sink to the bottom, then covered up by the sediment. To create a fossil on land is more difficult though not impossible. Fossil from land animals are easily made when an animal has fallen into a tar pit or there has been a catastrophe that caused the land to shift in such a way that an animal has become trapped within earth. With the age of the earth and the evolving of life there is an abundance that can be found. Dates can be measured and connections can be made within the strata, although in various places in the world.
Chapter Three: Talents and Hidden Agendas.
In this chapter hidden “talents” are revealed to be vestigial organs or traits; a sign of speciation. Vestiges are described as features of a species that are an adaptation of an ancestor. Vestiges are either remnants of evolution that are still present in the current makeup of a species. It may not be an active trait, like the now flippers of penguins or the preauricular sinus (that little hole next to the outer ear of humans). Another example are the wings of an ostrich, which are useless for flight or goosebumps in humans (Coyne, pp. 57,62). Vestiges gave the familiarity for what we see in opposing organisms in nature. Humans are not monkeys but they can move their ears similar to monkeys but with less precision.
If vestiges are the hidden talents of speciation what is the explanation for the anomalies in nature? What explains the tails on babies or the extra toes on horses? “These sporadically expressed remnants of ancestral features are called atavisms, from the Latin atavus, or “ancestor.” They differ from vestigial traits because they occur only occasionally rather than in every individual.” (Coyne, p. 64) In simpler terms, atavisms are a reminder of what we were and what we needed to survive at a certain point in the evolutionary timeline.
For those species that do not exhibit vestiges or atavisms, they are not exempt from the evolution process and they are a new species of human or animal. Each species still carry the genetic code of their ancestor. These genes are simply turned off, garnering the name pseudogenes, and through the process of evolution the genes have been made inactive. These inactive genes stay in the backseat until they are revived when somethings goes awry in development (Coyne, 2009, p. 65).
Think about the story of creation. Adam was formed from earth and Eve formed from Adam’s rib. If a species evolves over time then there should not be assorted colors or sizes of humans. There should not be such an abundance of species of birds, birds, insects, or other plant and animal life. There should not atavisms, vestiges, or dead genes. Though there is and Tiktaalik has the wrist to prove it.
Chapter Four: Where to Find the Fossils.
Vestigial traits, organs, or limbs and atavisms rounds out to the next stage/step in providing a background to the truth of evolution – common ancestry. Shubin expressed that common ancestry is the wrist. The wrist was the missing link to understanding and becoming one with our “inner fish and Tiktaalik had the right stuff (Shubin, 2009).” Tiktaalik having a wrist produced further evidence that species are connected in a way that far surpassed the creation story. Though how was it that Tiktaalik was found is fascinating.
Looking to geography we find out that Tiktaalik was found by figuring out the right place and time. Geography also shaped the speciation process. Geography is the reason common ancestry is even a step in the evolution process. Geography explains partially why many animals with similar features and traits reside on different continents. This process is called convergent evolution, demonstrating three parts of the evolution theory: common ancestry, speciation, and natural selection (Coyne, 2009). It would be an uncomplicated way to explain the speciation of a bird or fish species, being that they have more freedom in mobility for the most part. What about those animals that were confined to land? How did they speciate to seemingly vastly different continents. Plate tectonics explains it—a theory on how the earth shifted apart. Before the continents shifted apart, the animals just became separated by geographic barrier, like a volcanic eruption dividing a lake.
What was discovered from the continental drift from biogeographic evidence is the fossil of the Glossopteris, a tree. It was a conifer that had tongue-shaped leaves instead of needles. When tracing the distributions of this tree in the southern hemisphere, scientists provide further considerable evidence of the continental drift along with making a case for evolution. Also in why “Why Evolution is True” it states the seeds were to float from one island to the next. When observing evolution from this standpoint you can see how it important it is for the pieces to fit together.
Chapter 5: A Study of the Concepts.
The convergence evolution process used three concepts of evolution to explain the pattern of speciation – “demonstrates three parts of evolutionary theory working together: common ancestry, speciation and natural selection (Coyne, 2009).” The most famous and well know of the convergence process is natural selection expressed by the simple sentiment ‘survival of the fittest.” Natural selection is the process by which plants and animals adapt to their environments and how future generations thrived. Natural selection is the engine of evolution. Natural selection just does not begin and end with mating or the weak versus the strong, but also the predator/prey relationship.
One of the examples presented in “Why Evolution is True” posed a scenario about the fur color of mice. Mice on a beach in Florida were mostly white with a brown stripe down the back; it is believed that these evolved from brown mice. Their color was a forced adaptation based on the presence of a predator that quickly picked off the brown mice, who could not hide easily away in the white sands of this beach. This is an example selection outside of the norms of picking a mate based on attraction. Based on the coat color of the mice, the predator/prey relationship propelled the genetic composition of this breed of mice in a new direction.
Chapter 6: Sex Drive
Exploring chapter 6 we see what part sex plays in evolution. Here it is explored how different animals attract mates to push the species forward. Some traits seem to be bad by design like the male tungara frogs of Central America who use a song to attract females for mating though in turn they attract bats, the predator. There is sexual dimorphism, this descried the traits that differ between the male and female species (Coyne, p. 146). This chapter explained how the male species was designed to complete for the female or females’ attention. This is in line with survival of the fittest concept, especially for those species who are polygynous.
You can explore the microevolution concept from how sexual attraction drove minor changes leading to macroevolution. With microevolution slight changes, like fur color, drive the initial change. If the fur color is the dominant gene in the DNA then more offspring would be born with this trait. Then the trait must be desirable. If the brightly color plume of a peacock were not desirable then trait could then become a dead gene.
Chapter 7: Appearing to be Compatible
Everything is not what it appears to be. The biological species concept (BSC), a definition defined by Ernst Mayer, is a reason for reproductive isolation. A species that is unable to reproduce either by prezygotic or postzygotic methods will be unable to evolve past their own species. Meaning they cannot pass along genes to other species. “The advantage of BSC is that it takes care of many problems that appearance-based species concepts can’t handle.” (Coyne, p. 174) With two separate species resembling each other, like big cats, they can breed but do not based on appearance. They do not recognize each other as a breeding species. This chapter also reiterated that species just do not come about (Coyne, p. 176). Since the since the first life 3.7 billion years ago nothing has been that sporadic. Now that foundation has been built, the engine, life is left to figure out and work towards the future.
Chapter 8
Darwin is a man and men have learned to eat each other intellectually when they do not understand or are stubborn in acceptance. Chapter provides us with some background to human evolution process that was not accepted. The idea was species were a label for other plants and animals but not “man” – humans were off limits to speciation; God’s perfect being.
In 1871 the fossil for humans started to pick up speed. The human fossil record only contained a few bones and they were too human like to be regarded as a link between human and apes (Coyne, p. 194). Then in 1891 Eugene Dubois, a Dutch physician found a skull that was more robust, 1924 Taungs child set off in Africa for ancestors, the most exciting discovery of Lucy in 1974. These finds as described in Coyne’s book were scarce. Mostly due to the conditions in Africa were not conducive to fossilization because of the environment.
Conclusion
What is learned is that we can continue to try and find all the of fossils to completely map the plant and animal evolutionary timeline to form a complete evolutionary thought or we can use the seemingly oddly stepped ladder we have put together because it works. It works because it fits. Tiktaalik has a wrist and so do we. We exhibit traits of other animals because we are part of each other. It seems odd to have an inner fish, because we expect to see a clear representation, like breathing underwater, an outer representation of a fish. In “Why Evolution Is True” Coyne guides on a path of examples and scientific backed proof of the evolutionary changes of both plants and animals. He reintroduced us to the plate tectonics and the continental drift theory that we learned about in high school. Vestiges, atavisms, and dead genes explained that what we considered defects were either old genes activated or mutation in the genetic material. He gave examples, of plants evolved to meet the transformation of distinct species and the same goes for animals. We read how distinct species competed or did not compete for mates. Sex was a driving force behind evolution but so was survival. Natural selection was more than just the week dying off but the isolated.
There is a substantial amount of information in this seemingly small book. It keeps you intrigued and guides your interest to learn more. The book also provides just enough background on the key players to different concepts about the evolution theory. This book had me searching for the different sounds made by animals, I researched the wasp and its larvae that voracious, appetite, lastly ourselves – the humans or homo sapiens.
As Mr. Big, in “Zootopia” said, “My child, we may be evolved, but deep down we are still animals.”
References
Coyne, J. A. (2009). Why Evolution is True. New York: Penguin Group.
Mish, F. C. (2012). Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield: Merriam-Webster Incorporated.
Shubin, N. (2009). Your Inner Fish. New York: Vintage Books.
Mookie
