Reviews

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

storytimewithlily's review

 Very interesting to learn about how macroevolution actually works 

selkis's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

2.75

bikeknit's review

5.0

Some chapters in this book read easily and others require some persistence to get through the technical information. But what a fascinating story. Zimmer uses the evolution from aquatic animals to land animals and then the evolution back to the water (whales) to explain macroevolution - and the process by which scientists learn about it. He's a very good writer and a great guide through what might seem rather esoteric stuff.

I enjoyed talking with people about this book though I learned from several that though us biologists think of the basics of evolution as being common knowledge, they are not. Anyone with an interest in evolutionary biology will enjoy this. Zimmer has a blog where he updates people on what has happened since he wrote this book.