Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA

Author Neil Shubin’s Some Assembly Required takes readers on a journey of discovery spanning centuries as explorers and scientists seek to understand the origins of life’s immense diversity.Over billions of years, ancient fish evolved to walk on land, reptiles transformed into birds, and apelike primates into humans. Paleontologists have studied fossils for over a century to understand these changes.

Prehistoric fossils and new DNA technology have now answered fundamental questions about evolution: how big changes occur, and if our presence on Earth is a chance occurrence. This new science reveals a multibillion-year evolutionary history filled with twists, turns, trial and error, and accident and invention.

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