A new book captures how genetics fills in the story of life’s evolution
Some Assembly RequiredNeil ShubinPantheon, $26.95 When descendants of ancient fish first hauled themselves onto dry land, they didn’t do so with lungs evolved specifically for that reason. The need to breathe air ultimately led to a change in the function of an organ the fish already had. Likewise, when birds took to the air millions of years later, they did so using feathers that may have originally evolved as insulation or as a way to attract mates. In Some Assembly Required, Neil Shubin, a paleontologist, explores these and other great evolutionary innovations, as well as the invisible genetic changes that made them possible. The book is an impressive chronicle of what genetic research over the last few decades has done to complement the story of evolution, a tale once told through fossils, anatomy and physiology alone. For instance, studies show that the genes fish need to build swim bladders — the organ that helps control buoyancy — are the same ones lungfish and...