Neil Shubin Presentation - Cultural Event 1

Neil Shubin, an experienced fish pantologist, gave a rather interesting and unique speech a couple nights ago in McCrary Theater about an interesting discovery he and his partners made regarding a fossilized skeleton of a missing link they were searching for in the evolution of fish to land animals. The talk was interesting to listen to especially since it was in an area I am not quite familiar with and also since his discovery has breached a gap that will now change the way scientists and everyday people view evolution and the journey from sea creatures to land dwelling creatures.

Neil Shubin's discovery is a 375 million year old fossil which was named tiktaalik and many scientists agree that this crucial finding now further proves Darwin's theory that some sea creatures evolved into land animals. Tiktaalik was an interesting find because it had bone structure that corresponded to the shoulder, elbow and wrist. Shubin pointed out that this structure is the link between the regular less developed structure of a fin on a fish and the more developed arm structure seen in land animals, a strcuture that would allow this fish, unlike others to perform some kind of pushing motion.

Neil also talked about the area where the fossil was found, the Arctic, and how dangerous and barren the landscape was. The tents they used were made for the worst weather extremes and they still needed to build wind walls out of the rocks in the landscape to prevent some of the tents from blowing over. I also found it interesting that in the Arctic Neil said he carried a rifle around with him at all times simply in fear of a polar bear attack.

I found the speech Neil Shubin gave very interesting and couldn't believe how casually he was talking about such a major discovery. I find it very interesting that simply looking around a barren land of rock and nothing else could result in such a major find and major breakthrough for scientists. Although some of the information Neil was talking about was a little over my head and a little to scientific for my understanding, he did a great job of presenting his discovery and relating the importance of such a find to the audience, a discovery that will change the scientific view that much more on evolution.