Emily Davidow » links for 2008-02-19: Your Inner Fish

links for 2008-02-19: Your Inner Fish

Posted on 02.19.08 by Emily

So looking forward to reading Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin, after these two fascinating articles on it today:
Hiccups are Your Inner Fish Breathing

Consider hiccups. These spasms in our diaphragms are triggered by electric signals generated in the brain stem, which we inherited from amphibian ancestors who emit similar signals to control their gills. Hiccups are the same phenomenon as gill breathing.

What People Owe Fish: A Lot

Our inner fish extends beyond physicality. New research reveals that many fish display a wide range of surprisingly sophisticated social behaviors, pursuing interpersonal, interfishal relationships that seem almost embarrassingly familiar.

“Fish have some of the most complex social systems known,” Michael Taborsky, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, said. “You see fish helping each other. You see cooperation and forms of reciprocity.”

(tags: NeilShubin YourInnerFish Hiccups Breathing Gills fish BrainStem amphibians evolution)

links for 2007-10-20 Pop!Tech edition
links for 2008-01-16
links for 2008-01-24

Filed under: animals and books and links and science

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