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It turns out that this was true for a large number of species, not only fruit flies. We share the same top-down, muscle-building gene sequence on our chromosomes with flies, frogs, worms, and even people. After making this finding, researchers could finally answer the riddle of how animals evolved. Soon after, they discovered something more. From frog legs to blue whale flippers, the same genes cause the creation of limbs in a wide range of species. Fish have them too, but instead of limbs, they produce fins. Furthermore, these genes in fish are active and drive the growth of the bones that sit at the tips of the fins. Chapter 5 - The human genome contains fundamental components that enable copying, mutation, leaping, and even hunting. You could be excused for assuming that with all that humans have accomplished, our bodies are significantly more developed than those of our closest ancestors, and certainly more sophisticated than fish or plants. But if the sea squirt has anything to teach us, it's that our conceit that we are the world's top predator is unjustified. Our genome is the clearest example of this anywhere. It seems logical to think that our genome functions like a well-tuned machine with everything in perfect alignment and playing together as gracefully as a professional symphony. But such a supposition is incorrect. The human genome is extremely dynamic, and its constituent parts are always at war with one another. Actually, the amount of genetic material in an animal has nothing to do with how complicated it is. Corn, which contains twice as much genetic material as you do, is an excellent illustration of this. In actuality, a large portion of animal DNA is made up of duplicated, essentially useless genes, or "junk DNA," as it is known to scientists. However, the active genes in the genome are hard at work and act in a variety of unanticipated ways. Chromosomes divide and duplicate themselves during the production of sperm and eggs. This is advantageous because the new gene acquires a new function while the old gene keeps its original one. However, this process went awry somewhere in the distant past when genes learned to leap. That's correct; genes not only have the capacity to duplicate themselves, but also the mobility to bounce across the genome and do so. Barbara McClintock, a Nobel Prize-winning American scientist, estimates that these jumping genes make up around 70% of the human genome. However, if you were beginning to feel bad for the typical DNA segments that these leaping upstarts were taking over, rest assured they are quite than capable of defending themselves. Jumping genes have a manner of being physically weighed down by normal DNA segments, which prevents them from hopping to another spot. Jumping genes are controlled by this method, although they can still replicate in certain ways. Chapter 6 - Even if evolution had taken a different course, many results would have remained the same. As we now know, the sea squirt is the progenitor of all living things on Earth. But a different revolutionary event created the groundwork for life as we know it billions of years before the sea squirt. Single-celled organisms were the first biological things to exist on Earth. The Earth's atmosphere gradually began to fill with oxygen as a result of some of these creatures beginning to manufacture oxygen as a waste product over time. After countless billions of years, a new type of microorganism that derived its energy from oxygen started to proliferate. The development of bodies was made feasible when these germs joined forces with a bacterium that could generate complex proteins. Scientists were in awe of this history and what followed for a very long time. They reasoned that even the smallest deviation would have upset the balance. They were mistaken. Let's go back to our old buddy the salamander to demonstrate the shocking reality that some events would have occurred anyway. Perhaps you've seen movies of a salamander using its mouth to grab a fly. Even in slow motion, it is difficult to see the tongue coming out of its mouth so quickly. Then, almost instantly, it pulls it back into its mouth. It is a true biological marvel and a remarkable example of evolution. The truth is that there aren't many species of salamanders with projectile tongues that are linked to one another. Their ancestry is essentially wholly different. This indicates that the evolution of a projectile tongue had been placed more than once—possibly even more than three times. Additionally, each development happened separately from the others. There can never be more than a finite number of solutions to a problem, which is why multiples like this are necessary. Consider flying. In order to produce lift, a creature needs a large surface area, which is why all flying creatures have wings rather than, for example, helicopter blades. It should not be surprising that humans occasionally have multiples of the same item as all creatures employ different copies of the same genes to develop their bodies. Great technologies like flying and projectile tongues did not just appear by chance. The dice are definitely thrown, but life's history is not a game of chance. The way our genes construct our bodies, the physical limitations of our surroundings, and history all have an impact on how we have developed. Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA by Neil Shubin Book Review The tale of life is a winding one, with conflicts over genetic dominance, dead ends, and incorrect turns. But there are astonishing and unexpected genetic commonalities across all creatures. Even if we observe some unexpected evolutionary results, this connection suggests that some of those outcomes may not be as absurd as they first appear.