Freaks of Nature : What Anomalies Tell Us About Development and Evolution: What Anomalies Tell Us About Development and Evolution

Author: Mark BlumbergPaperback:Publisher: Oxford University Press, USAISBN 10: 0199736189ISBN 13: 978-0199736188Hardcover:Publisher: Oxford University PressISBN 10: 0195322827ISBN 13: 978-0195322828In most respects, Abigail and Brittany Hensel are normal American twins. Born and raised in a small town, they enjoy a close relationship, though each has her own tastes and personality. But the Hensels also share a body. Their two heads sit side-by-side on a single torso, with two arms and two legs. They have not only survived, but have developed into athletic, graceful young women. And that, writes Mark S. Blumberg, opens an extraordinary window onto human development and evolution. In Freaks of Nature, Blumberg turns a scientist's eye on the oddities of nature, showing how a subject once relegated to the sideshow can help explain some of the deepest complexities of biology. Why, for example, does a two-headed human so resemble a two-headed minnow? What we need to understand, Blumberg arg