Arctic Explorer & Paleontologist Neil Shubin to Speak in Provincetown

Author of Your Inner Fish to speak about recent Arctic discoveries

PROVINCETOWN - Arctic explorer and paleontologist Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish, will speak about his recent discoveries in the Arctic on August 12 at 2 p.m. at the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.

In 1908 Donald MacMillan, Provincetown hero and explorer, was on an expedition with Robert Peary hoping to reach the North Pole. One hundred years later, Wellfleet summer resident Neil Shubin is making exciting discoveries of his own in the Arctic.  In his talk, Shubin will compare and contrast his experiences in the Arctic with those of MacMillan. His knowledge gives him a unique perspective on the importance of MacMillan’s early work. His insight will provide Provincetown residents with a new appreciation for MacMillan and his explorations in the Arctic.

Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of anatomy at the University of Chicago, will also discuss his book Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3. 5-Billion-Year-History of the Human Body.  It tells the story of his 2004 discovery of the fossil remains of a fish hailed as “the missing link” or the “fish that crawled out of the water.” Named Tiktaalik (the word means “large, freshwater fish’ in the Inukitatut dialect of Inuit), Shubin’s find was announced in Nature’s April 2006 issue and subsequently attracted the attention of news media around the nation. In Harvard Magazine (Shubin is an alumni), Neil Porter Brown calls Your Inner Fish, “. . . an infectious exploration of the 3.5 –billion-year history of the human body. It traces our organs back to fossils and prehistoric DNA–how our arm and hand bones came from fins; how our teeth first formed as spiky structures in the mouths of tiny, ancient jawless lamprey-like fish known as conodonts, and how major aspects of our genome are similar to those of worms.” Shubin himself says that he seeks “to understand the mechanisms behind the evolutionary origin of new anatomical features and faunas. The philosophy that underlies all of my empirical work is derived from the conviction that progress in the study of evolutionary biology results from linking research across diverse temporal, phylogenetic, and structural scales.” The topic is complex, but Neil Shubin manages to make it not only understandable but also interesting.

Free admission for Members, all others free with regular museum admission.

Release courtesy of the Pilgrim Monument & Provincetown Museum.

The Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum is open 7 days a week from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. from April 1 through November with extended hours from June 16 to September 15 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission Adults $7.00; Seniors (age 62+) and Students (15+ with ID) $5.00; Children (4 – 14) $3.50; Children 3 and under are admitted free.  Contact the Museum at 508-487-1310 or visit the website here.