How did fish grow legs and walk on the land? How did mammals return to the sea? Read about it in the April 7th Periodic Roundtable book: "At Water's Edge" by Carl Zimmer. Zimmer uses the emergence of land animals from the water and the return of mammals (whales) to the sea to demonstrate macroevolution. In the process he shows us how scientists have answered some of the most difficult questions about evolution on a grand scale. Via Zimmer's skillful narrative we learn both how such enormous changes in physiology and form could have occurred, and how science works to fill in the gaps of our understanding. It's a grand story and I hope you will join us for the discussion.

While reservations are not required, a reservation will assure a place. Email Christine Taft or phone 816-926-8778 to reserve a seat. Read more about our book discussions.

There is a copy of the book available for checkout at the Library. Several local public libraries have copies of this book. To get started you can read an excerpt on Zimmer's web site.

Additional Reading

Carl Zimmer has suggested several articles from his blog that provide updates on what has been learned since he wrote the book.

Read what computational biology has added to our knowledge of whale origins as well as Zimmer's take on the communication gap between biologists in different fields.

If you'd like to read more check out the following:

Fish with Fingers (from the PBS Evolution Library)
University of Kentucky - Devonian Period - Lobefins, Lungfish, Amphibians, and Tetrapod Evolution
Whale Evolution (from the PBS Evolution Library)

And a selection of books from our collection:

Clack, Jennifer A. 2002. Gaining Ground: the origin and evolution of tetrapods. Indiana University Press. Bloomington.
Berta, Annalisa, James L. Sumich, and Kit M. Kovacs. 2006. Marine Mammals: Evolutionary Biology. 2nd ed. Elsevier. Amsterdam.
Zimmer, Carl. 2001. Evolution: the triumph of an idea. Harper Collins. New York.
Hall, Brian K. (ed.) 2007. Fins into Limbs. University of Chicago Press. Chicago.
Jarvik, Erik. 1996. The Devonian Tetrapod Ichthyostega. Scandinavian University Press. Oslo.