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

I won't rehash what previous reviews have said about what the book is actually about, but what I will say is that this was a really well-written, engaging, and accessible piece of work. Zimmer does an excellent job explaining the concepts and history involved at every turn that most readers can enjoy this without worrying, "Well, what if I don't understand it?" A lot of the book of course talked about people (mainly paleontologists, of course) and I was impressed by how human everyone was and how it emphasizes how that human element has affected the study of the past and our understanding of it. Overall, I really enjoyed this read, I never felt lost or talked down to, and I felt like I learned without feeling like I was doing homework.

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.

There's really not much I can add to the previous reviews which state quite nicely what this book is about. However, I have to mention that this is the first book I have come across (at least for the general reading public)that goes into such depth on the evolution of whales. Nowhere else have I been able to find the kind of in-depth information which Carl Zimmer has put in this great book.He is one of my favorite writers and I look forward to anything he writes in the future.

This book does a remarkable job of covering two major transitions in evolution. First the transition from fish to the first terrestrial tetrapods and secondly from terrestrial mammals to whales. A kind of out of the water and back in scenario.The book covers the transitional specimens that have been found to date very well and goes over most of the difficulties of changing from one extreme environment to the other.I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in evolution.

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!

The author takes you along the path from the earliest animals to the evolution of whales in an account that is detailed , yet is an enjoyable read and one that does not lose you in all its intricacies. At the end I felt very satisfied that he had done an excellent account of explaining everything,