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Neil Shubin Lecture I: The Great Transitions in Evolution: Finding Fossils, Studying Genes, and Bridging Gaps Lecture II: Wings, Legs, and Fins: How Do New Organs Arise in Evolution? Neil Shubin is a distinguished paleontologist whose research seeks to understand the mechanics behind the evolutionary origin of anatomical features of animals. His work focuses mainly on the Devonian and Triassic periods to understand the pivotal ecological and evolutionary shifts that occurred during that time. In 2004, after scouring the Canadian Artic for six years, Shubin and his team unearthed the Tiktaalik roseae, a fossil “fishapod,” which, despite its fish-like features, had a neck, skull, ribs, and parts of limbs similar to land animals. This discovery represents the transition between fish and four-legged mammals that occurred over 350 million years ago. Hitchcock Lecture description: Evolutionary biology is a science that allows us to make predictions, about fossils in the geological record and the activity of different genes in different kinds of creatures. In his first lecture, Professor Shubin will discuss how this type of approach helps us to understand some of the great transformations in the history of life. His second lecture will ask the question “How do new organs arise in the history of life?” New technologies allow us to look at this and other classic questions in biology.
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