My Inner Fish Blog Reflection

Last week, our class watched a series called "My Inner Fish" by Neil Shubin. This series is about how we have evolved from those that are thought to not be related to us, such as fishes or reptiles. In the first video, we learned about the first transitional species that could walk on land, the Tiktaalik. This video showed how the Tiktaalik's flippers, which allowed it to support its weight, slowly evolved into our hands and digits and how the fossils were found. The second video in the series is about the reptile and how they evolved over time to become mammals. We learned about how these early land animals lived underground, hunting for prey during the night and more. This series links back to the unit of evolution because we still have structures inside our body that once were used by fishes and reptiles a long time ago.
 One of the questions that we were asked was, "How and why did hair first evolve?" Hair first evolved when it was used as a sensory organ, in the form of whiskers. These whiskers helped the animal maneuver in the dark. However, this makes me think, why did these whiskers suddenly turn up? How did these whiskers evolve into the hair that we have today? I think that the whiskers that the early land animals had really gave them an advantage when compared to land animals that did not have the whiskers at the time.
Another question was, "Why are mass extinctions important?" The reason that mass extinctions are important is because they give the survivors a chance the become the dominant species. These extinctions also create new species that can flourish. The mass extinction of dinosaurs is the reason that humans are dominating. The dinosaurs were the dominating, so no species could take over and flourish. However, when the extinction came, then the mammals began to flourish, and we the human generation was born, since we were once descended from the mammals before us.

Tiktaalik