How does the human ear provide information about our evolutionary history?
In Chapter 10 of Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin, the author moves on from eyes to ears. The ear itself is a complex system and a couple decades before Darwin, another scientist discovered that the bones of the inner ear are very similar, if not the same, as the ones found in the jaw of reptiles. As the information is believable now, it wasn't back then especially without the introduction of evolution. But when embryos are studied throughout their different stages, it is shown that the slits in an embryo that form gills in a fish, specifically a shark, become the bones inside of an ear of a human being. The chapter also explained interesting information about the connection between the ear and how one keeps balance.
The most interesting part of this chapter was the section that discussed why one starts to stagger after getting drunk. I knew it happened, but I never knew the scientific reasoning behind it. It is because the alcohol from the bloodstream replaces the fluid in the inner ear, causing the brain to think that their is movement, when there really isn't. It's why you would feel dizzy. This chapter most closely relates to Big Idea #1 because it talks about the evolutionary history between fish and human beings.
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