At the Water's Edge : Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs, and How Life Came Ashore but Then Went Back to Sea

Rating:
Summary: Great read!!!!!!!..........
Review: ........if you enjoy evolution, then this book is a must read for you! "At the Water's Edge" takes you through the history of vertebrate evolution in minute detail. Specifically, Zimmer details the evolution of terapods (land vertebrates as well as those vertebrates that returned to the water) from our common ancestor that lived in the water. He shows the movement onto land and, in the case of mammals that live in the sea, back into the water again. For each evolutionary step, Zimmer presents highly detailed evidence, mostly in the form of major fossil discoveries. Be ready to go on an expedition with each of the paleontologists that contribute their scientific data to this book! This book reads like an adventure that is loaded with discoveries and that covers the far reaches of our planet!

Be ready for a scientific history that spans 380 million years, from the Devonian period to the present day. Zimmer shows us how minute genetic changes can lead to anatomical modifications that allow an animal to respond differently to its environment. As we read, we see the slow unfolding of our own "family tree". Zimmer includes an entire mind-boggling chapter on the evolution of the hand from limb-like fins. The book begins by explaining just how it is that creatures became adapted to life on land and came ashore (with several surprises). He also has several chapters devoted to the evolution of the whale (and other mammals such as dolphins and manatees that live in water today) from land back into the water again. He details the necessary changes in anatomical structure, brian size, sensory perception and more, that were necessary for such dramatic changes in living environment (from water to land and back) to take place. This book is simply too crammed full of compelling evolutionary info for me to even do it justice here.

Even if you aren't into evolution, this book, I believe, will grab you. It's Zimmer's strong gift for detail and presenting ideas and evidence in common language that will hold any inquisitive reader. As you read, it is simply not possible to see yourself as anything other than a product of all life that is interrelated on this earth. This book is simply a fabulous read!

Rating:
Summary: Almost like a whale? *
Review: Anyone roughly familiar with the course of evolution knows that somehow, somewhen, some animals emerged from the sea. They became land animals - a lineage of them became us. Yet, looking at life in the sea, the emergence of life on land seems rather narrowly focussed. In the sea there are ten-armed squid, eight-armed octopi and five-legged starfish. Except for insects and spiders, nearly all land life from tiny shrews to the immense dinosaurs are formed on a consistent pattern. We're all four-limbed - we're tetrapods. How did that come about?

In this excellent synopsis of the life in the ancient seas, Carl Zimmer examines not only the animals living there, but the wide variety of environments the sea offers. Where, he asks, would life have found the most advantages? If you have some knowledge of physical limitations about salinity, pressure at depth and vision, the answer seems easy. If you don't, Zimmer carefully explains about the need for sunlight, limited pressure tolerance and available food. This location turns out to be in the shallow zones close to land. The shallow areas of the sea are the tidal zones, and it was there that a particular form of fish achieved particular success. These creatures - the lobe-finned fishes - had capability in changing environments. They may not have flashed through the water like marlin or tuna, but they could manuever when the tide fell. The lobe fin was comprised of a set of bones ending in five final extremeties. Examined closely, they look like a misshapen hand - or paw. And there's always four of them.

These creatures, cumbersome in appearance, still managed to make the transition to a dry environment. There were more than just klutzy-looking paws involved. Zimmer explains how the issues of breathing, digestion, body covering and other factors would all need adjustment to the land environment. Zimmer labels these changes "macroevolution". He uses the term to show how body elements changing required interaction among several areas to become a successful organism adapted to a new realm. Jawbones open or merge, skulls lengthen or grow wide, legs shift in position. And teeth? Ah, there's the real pointer to what land animals modified to survive.

Just when Zimmer has his subjects firmly established in forest and veldt, he must follow some of them back to the sea. The giant sea creatures known as cetaceans were a mystery even prior to Darwin's time. Darwin himself, perplexed by what mechanism could have brought these immense mammals back to their remote origins, offered one solution. Zimmer relates Darwin's idea that a swimming bear-like creature made the transition. Both Darwin and Zimmer acknowledge how unlikely that scenario is. What did take place, however, was unknown for over a century. After numerous false pointers, the precursors of whales turned out to be a low-slung wolf-like animal from what is now Pakistan. Phil Gingerich, scrambling about streamside cliffs in that country, produce Pakicetus. Ears and teeth became the focal point of research in early whales. The change from atmospheric to water hearing, including the trick of echolocation, traces how land animals returned to the sea. Changes in diet are reflected in how teeth are shaped and distributed.

Zimmer's account is a lively read, with good accounts of the paleontology and assessment of evidence. There are excellent line drawings to illustrate the various creatures discussed. As a science writer of excellent reputation, he graces the text with good footnotes and references, tucked away at the back. A fine study in a dynamic field. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

* with thanks and humble apologies to Steve Jones

Rating:
Summary: A wonderous presentation of natures adaptations.
Review: Carl Zimmer brings the organizational skills of an experienced journalist and surprising literary talents to present an exquisite, up to date, narrative on the evolution of tetrapods, emerging from the water as amphibians and returning as cetaceans. In this book, he reports on the latest fossil discoveries, the prominent scientific researchers and the direction of their scientific analysis with style, and more importantly, great clarity. Some portions of At the Water's Edge are not easy for armchair paleo-buffs to comprehend, but Zimmer does an admirable job explaining the function of mesenchyme cells and hox genes. What I enjoyed most about this book, was the way Zimmer follows the trail of scientific discovery, documenting every bit of evidence, like a well-tuned detective novel. It's a compelling tale of interaction between paleontologist, geneticists, geologists and embryologists over many years. New fossil specimens demand a reworking of the evolutionary chronology. Our knowledge about the origins of tetrapods, our ancestral forbearers, is enhanced through the process of discovery. What I enjoyed most about Zimmer's work is the sense of objectivity and balance that comes from the third party perspective of a journalist. While Gould, Eldredge, Conway-Morris, Fortey and Bakker provide paleophiles books of great personal insight and passion, At the Water's Edge is completely satisfying in it's precise reportage. This is Zimmer's first book... I hope he's started another!

Rating:
Summary: Masterful, fascinating and a complete joy to read
Review: I've probably read this book 4 times completely, and bits of it more. Each time I not only learn more, but I become more convinced that this is one of the finest natural history titles I've ever read. Zimmer is a masterful writer with the capacity to make fairly complex ideas immediately understandable yet never over simplified or trivialized. But it is the images I can construct in my mind of what he describes that amazes me. I've recommended this book to many students and colleagues and have given several copies away just because I wanted someone to share my enjoyment of science writing at its best--and to grasp some of the most exciting evolutionary milestones of the vertebrate record--the movement onto the land of the Paleozoic and the great return to the sea of the Cenozoic--the "fish with fingers and the whales with legs" of the title.

Get it, read it, savor it, and then share it widely.

Rating:
Summary: Masterful, fascinating and a complete joy to read
Review: I've probably read this book 4 times completely, and bits of it more. Each time I not only learn more, but I become more convinced that this is one of the finest natural history titles I've ever read. Zimmer is a masterful writer with the capacity to make fairly complex ideas immediately understandable yet never over simplified or trivialized. But it is the images I can construct in my mind of what he describes that amazes me. I've recommended this book to many students and colleagues and have given several copies away just because I wanted someone to share my enjoyment of science writing at its best--and to grasp some of the most exciting evolutionary milestones of the vertebrate record--the movement onto the land of the Paleozoic and the great return to the sea of the Cenozoic--the "fish with fingers and the whales with legs" of the title.

Get it, read it, savor it, and then share it widely.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific tale of tetrapods
Review: If you're a novice when it come to tetrapod evolution you'll love this read. Concise and beautifully written this book shows the step by step path of how life came out of the ocean and went back again. I was impressed with how Mr. Zimmer packed so much history into such a small book. There are plenty of illustrations to compliment the ideas discussed herein.

Rating:
Summary: Very readable
Review: It is unusual to describe a biology text as a real "page-turner", but Zimmer's book comes very close. It is an engrossing account of two of evolution's greatest transitions - from the water to the sea, and then, for some species, back to the sea once again.

The key to the success of this book is Zimmer's habit of taking the reader along on the dig. We follow Owen Gingerich to Pakistan and Egypt, where he finds hundreds of gargantuan whale-like Basilosaurus fossils in Zeuglodon Valley, and further discovers that they posess a very surprising feature - tiny little legs.

Follow Deaschler andd Rowe as they dig for tetrapod fossils, and discover a surprising number of fingers. Even when discussing such heady concepts as Hox genes and Sonic enzymes, Zimmer remains highly readable and entertaining.

The true test of a book lies in how it affects your outlook on life. In this case, I found myself keenly interested in the critters that inhabit our planet alongside us. With the hindsight afforded by a book such as this, we can see that the pattern of evolution is broadly stamped upon all of Nature's children.

Rating:
Summary: Simply the best
Review: There's really not much I can add to the previous reviews which state quite nicely what this book is about. However, I have to mention that this is the first book I have come across (at least for the general reading public)that goes into such depth on the evolution of whales. Nowhere else have I been able to find the kind of in-depth information which Carl Zimmer has put in this great book.

He is one of my favorite writers and I look forward to anything he writes in the future.

Rating:
Summary: "Everybody out of the Pond"
Review: This book deals with two of the greatest transformations in natural history. The first part deals with how fish developed their body to live on land and the second explains how some mammals changed to go back and live in the water. The author explains how evolution, both micro and macro, works and gives us a tiny history of how Darwin's idea of natural selection changed how we thought about life on Earth.
The books not only tosses in a few new ideas, like early fish might of had both gills AND lungs, but but also shows how paletontolgy, ecology, genetics and embryology are being used to solve the secrets of macroevilution that biologists have been trying to uncover for centuries.
Carl Zimmer knows his stuff and knows how to explain it without confusing the readers.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent tour of mammalian evolution
Review: Zimmer takes the reader on a wonderful journey through the writing of modern mammalian history. It is full of historical accounts, factual information and clear theory. A great read for anyone interested in evolution.