At the Water's Edge : Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs, and How Life Came Ashore but Then Went Back to Sea (Paperback)

by Carl Zimmer (Author) "In a basement laboratory in London a man contemplated a carcass..." (more)
Key Phrases: correlated progression, mesenchyme cells, whale evolution, Van Valen, New York, Richard Owen (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Ernst Mayr Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University Zimmer is a born storyteller and succeeds in giving us pure pleasure while at the same time teaching us up-to-date science. -- Review

Review
Michael S. Y. Lee

Nature

One of the most fascinating topics in biology....[Zimmer] clearly understands the diverse scientific issues involved, and cuts through the scientific jargon so anyone can comprehend them.

Philip Gingerich

The New York Times Book Review

Zimmer does a good job of explaining how profoundly different are the physiological and structural requirements of life in water compared to life on land.

Booklist

A fascinating story, which Zimmer unfolds as a tale of high-stakes scientific sleuthing...thanks to marvelously lucid writing.

Publishers Weekly

More than just an informative book about macroevolution itself, this is an entertaining history of ideas written with literary flair and technical rigor.

Ernst Mayr

Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University

Zimmer is a born storyteller and succeeds in giving us pure pleasure while at the same time teaching us up-to-date science.

The Atlantic Monthly

Zimmer, an honored science journalist...leaves life among the fossils agreeably bright.

Kevin Padian

Professor and Curator, Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley

Anyone with an interest in evolution should pick up this book to get on the cutting edge of discovery.

James Shreeve

author of The Neandertal Enigma

From the first page Carl sets his book apart by diving straight into the most neglected, least understood mystery of all: how wholly new body plans and parts could have been created by natural forces that at first glance would seem to work to destroy innovation. Macroevolution is adaptation without a net. Carl's lucid, often lovely prose is making me finally understand how a species could pull it off without plunging into extinction. He is also very deft at crafting quick-bear narrative out of the lives, inspirations, foibles and occasional dastardliness of the scientists who have pursued this question, both historically and in modern times. I fully expect that At the Water's Edge will do for macroevolution what Jon Weiner's The Beak of the Finch did for microevolution or David Quammen's The Song of the Dodo did for extinction. I'm sure the book is going to really soar.

Robert L. Carroll

McGill University, author of Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution

Zimmer is an accomplished popularizer of scientific subjects. This book provides a strong basis for the public understanding of evolutionary patterns and processes

Peter Ward

University of Washington, author of The End of Evolution

This most compelling of evolutionary episodes is told with grace and style, Zimmer's book is a rock hammer blow to those who doubt that evolution is an understandable law of nature.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (September 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684856239
• ISBN-13: 978-0684856230
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #287,098 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read!!!!!!!.........., October 17, 2001

By	Margaret "fugirl" (NYC) - See all my reviews

........if you enjoy evolution, then this book is a must read for you! "At the Water's Edge" takes you through the history of vertebrate evolution in minute detail. Specifically, Zimmer details the evolution of terapods (land vertebrates as well as those vertebrates that returned to the water) from our common ancestor that lived in the water. He shows the movement onto land and, in the case of mammals that live in the sea, back into the water again. For each evolutionary step, Zimmer presents highly detailed evidence, mostly in the form of major fossil discoveries. Be ready to go on an expedition with each of the paleontologists that contribute their scientific data to this book! This book reads like an adventure that is loaded with discoveries and that covers the far reaches of our planet!

Be ready for a scientific history that spans 380 million years, from the Devonian period to the present day. Zimmer shows us how minute genetic changes can lead to anatomical modifications that allow an animal to respond differently to its environment. As we read, we see the slow unfolding of our own "family tree". Zimmer includes an entire mind-boggling chapter on the evolution of the hand from limb-like fins. The book begins by explaining just how it is that creatures became adapted to life on land and came ashore (with several surprises). He also has several chapters devoted to the evolution of the whale (and other mammals such as dolphins and manatees that live in water today) from land back into the water again. He details the necessary changes in anatomical structure, brian size, sensory perception and more, that were necessary for such dramatic changes in living environment (from water to land and back) to take place. This book is simply too crammed full of compelling evolutionary info for me to even do it justice here.

Even if you aren't into evolution, this book, I believe, will grab you. It's Zimmer's strong gift for detail and presenting ideas and evidence in common language that will hold any inquisitive reader. As you read, it is simply not possible to see yourself as anything other than a product of all life that is interrelated on this earth. This book is simply a fabulous read!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderous presentation of natures adaptations., December 11, 2000

By	Stephen Marley (Northern California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Carl Zimmer brings the organizational skills of an experienced journalist and surprising literary talents to present an exquisite, up to date, narrative on the evolution of tetrapods, emerging from the water as amphibians and returning as cetaceans. In this book, he reports on the latest fossil discoveries, the prominent scientific researchers and the direction of their scientific analysis with style, and more importantly, great clarity. Some portions of At the Water's Edge are not easy for armchair paleo-buffs to comprehend, but Zimmer does an admirable job explaining the function of mesenchyme cells and hox genes. What I enjoyed most about this book, was the way Zimmer follows the trail of scientific discovery, documenting every bit of evidence, like a well-tuned detective novel. It's a compelling tale of interaction between paleontologist, geneticists, geologists and embryologists over many years. New fossil specimens demand a reworking of the evolutionary chronology. Our knowledge about the origins of tetrapods, our ancestral forbearers, is enhanced through the process of discovery. What I enjoyed most about Zimmer's work is the sense of objectivity and balance that comes from the third party perspective of a journalist. While Gould, Eldredge, Conway-Morris, Fortey and Bakker provide paleophiles books of great personal insight and passion, At the Water's Edge is completely satisfying in it's precise reportage. This is Zimmer's first book... I hope he's started another!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Everybody out of the Pond", February 5, 2005

By	Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This book deals with two of the greatest transformations in natural history. The first part deals with how fish developed their body to live on land and the second explains how some mammals changed to go back and live in the water. The author explains how evolution, both micro and macro, works and gives us a tiny history of how Darwin's idea of natural selection changed how we thought about life on Earth.
The book not only tosses in a few new ideas, like early fish might of had both gills AND lungs, but but also shows how paletontolgy, ecology, genetics and embryology are being used to solve the secrets of macroevilution that biologists have been trying to uncover for centuries.
Carl Zimmer knows his stuff and knows how to explain it without confusing the readers.