Your+Inner+Fish+Homework+SLS

Shelby Smith August 18, 2008 Science-Human Biology

The humans adapted the head from fish as well as pairs of organs such as eyes, ears and nostrils. Lastly, humans acquire their appendages from fish as well.
 * (1) Describe at least three important PHYSICAL traits in humans that were found in fish first**

Humans and fish share the social trait of being cooperative and helpful.
 * (2) Describe a SOCIAL trait in humans that was found in fish first.**

The African cichlid is a colorful freshwater fish that is found in Lake Tanganyika, and the social behavior that they share in humans is that they defend their territory, they help keep the nests clean and they also take care of the young as a community. The cichlid’s also have to pay ‘rent’ so to speak, and they take care of things in the community while gaining protection.
 * (3) What is an African cichlid and what behavior do they have that resembles social behavior in humans. Describe.**

It is interesting that fish go through menopause because it is carried over into female humans.
 * (4) Why is it interesting that female guppies may go through menopause?**

The genes responsible in changes in skin pigmentation changed for the human and the fish as they migrated throughout the world.
 * (5) Which genes in humans shifted color during migration from one part of the world to another and also shift in color in fish?**

It is significant to Human Biology considering the fact that the fish have had vertebrates for 550 million years, making them the oldest and largest (making up more than half of the vertebrates with over 30,000 species) group.
 * (6) What is the significance to human biology that fish are the oldest group of vertebrates?**

The two traits that spurred from the competition and predation of fish that can be seen in humans are the teeth, which also evolved into the fishes skull; “the earliest skulls were little more than a thousand tiny teeth fused together.” and limbs that were strong enough to “hoist your scaly self out of the sea and begin sampling the plants and anthropods that preceded you on dry land.”
 * (7) Competition and predation among fish species led to the evolution of two important physical traits found in humans. What are these two traits and how did competition and predation spur their evolution?**


 * Regarding the NPR interview with the author of Your Inner Fish, Neil Shubin:**

The Tiktaalik is unusual because it has scales and fin webbing like a fish, but it has a flat head with eyes on top as well as a neck.
 * (8) What is unusual about the Tiktaalik?**

Elbow, wrist and shoulder as well as parts of the palm. The humorous, the elbow and the two bones that make your forearm are also in the Tiktaalik. The eight bones in your wrist have four in Tiktaalik.
 * (9) What bones in the "arm" of a Tiktaalik are also found in human arms?**

A hiccup is an irritation in the brain stem that triggers a skin flap in the back of the throat, causing a spasm. This trait is also found in animals that breathe through gills and lungs, like tadpoles.
 * (10) Explain why a hiccup is a relic of our fish ancestors?**