Stealth. 2006 Dec 11. Zimmer Ch. 10 and Review of Both Books. <http://development.pharyngula.org/zimmer_ch_10_and_review_of_both_books/>. Accessed 2008 Sep 06.

Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Monday, December 11, 2006

Zimmer Ch. 10 and Review of Both Books

In chapter ten of Carl Zimmer’s book, “At the Water’s Edge,” Zimmer takes main concepts of the book that were previously discussed and ties them together. Zimmer also introduces punctuated equilibrium that refers to species changing when they originate and not during the course of their life. We also learn about the mosasaurs which were giant reptiles that are related to some lizards that exist today. The mosasaurs lived in the waters off the coasts and then made a move to come on to land. Over the course of time they evolved to become better adapted to land. Eventually three different families of mosasaurs were formed. From there they lived until on day their kind went extinct. This allowed for the whales to do well in the oceans. This is because when whales did go into the ocean fulltime, they had great reward because nothing else was there except a vast quantity of food waiting to be eaten. Another topic covered in this is macroevolution, which are the large scale changes that occur over time. To demonstrate this, Carl talks about the changes that occurred that allowed whales to become descendants of mesonychids.

When looking at both that we have read this semester side by side, I would have to say that I enjoyed reading both books. Sean B. Carroll’s book, “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” was more like a science text book while Carl Zimmer’s book, “At the Water’s Edge” seemed more like a history book. Carroll’s book did a good job of covering topics associated with Evo Devo by giving good explanations of things like Hox proteins and the development of strips on organisms. Zimmer also did a good job by walking the reader through the evolution of whales and explaining what happened along the way along with giving the reader a better perspective of the transitions made by organisms between land and water. For both books the class discussion definitely helped me make sense of the topics that I did not understand and it was also nice that Myers also add the topics ideas and facts that were not talked about in the books. Both were very well written and very informative and worked well for this class and I would recommend keeping them and using them for the next class.