PRINT - REAB - C0NNENT - REPEAT

!"#$%&'()*" ,-.)
This piototype helps us test the book
concept. The ait is all /0#1*)'0%*" #"(. The
stoiy text looks ielatively finisheu, but we
aie making changes in iesponse to how
people iesponu. Text at the back is iough.

To ieau the book to chiluien, please /"-$( -(
iathei ieauing it on a uigital scieen.

Theie aie thiee soits of tests I'm asking
people to iun.

1. (Best) 0bseive as othei giownups ieau
the book to chiluien, especially ages 2-4.
Bow uoes it go.

2. Reau the book to chiluien, especially 2-4).
Bow uo they ieact.

S, Keep the book aiounu anu see how
chiluien iesponu to it ovei time anu iepeat
ieauings.

4. Reau the book youiself. What uo you like
anu what thiows you off. Aie theie paits
you uon't unueistanu oi that you woulu have
a haiu time explaining to a chilu. Bow uo
you like the science infoimation at the enu.

Please email comments, incluuing the ages of
the chiluien, to jonathantweetgmail.com.

Thank you!

- }onathan Tweet

Blog: http:gianumotheifish.woiupiess.com

S Nay 2u14

}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft S

This is our Grandmother Fish.
She lived a long, long, long, long, long time ago.

}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 4


She could wiggle and swim fast.
Can you wiggle?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft S

And she had jaws to chomp with.
Can you chomp?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 6

Grandmother Fish had many kinds of grandchildren.
They could wiggle and chomp.
Can you find our grandmother?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 7

This is our Grandmother Reptile.
She lived a long, long, long, long time ago.
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 8


She could crawl across the ground.
Can you crawl?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 9


And she could breathe air in and out.
Can you breathe?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 1u

Grandmother Reptile had many kinds of grandchildren.
They could wiggle and chomp and crawl and breathe.
Can you find our grandmother?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 11

This is our Grandmother Mammal.
She lived a long, long, long time ago.
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 12

She could cuddle with her babies and feed them milk.
Can you cuddle?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 1S

And she could squeak when she was scared.
Can you squeak?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 14

Grandmother Mammal had many kinds of grandchildren.
They could wiggle and chomp and crawl and breathe
and cuddle and squeak.
Can you find our grandmother?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 1S

This is our Grandmother Ape.
She lived a long, long time ago.

}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 16

She could grab fruit to eat.
Can you grab?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 17

And she could hoot when she was happy.
Can you hoot?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 18

Grandmother Ape had many kinds of grandchildren.
They could wiggle and chomp and crawl and breathe
and cuddle and squeak and grab and hoot.
Can you find our grandmother?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 19


This is our Grandmother Human.
She lived a long time ago.
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 2u

She could walk on two feet.
Can you walk?

}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 21

And she could talk to the other humans.
Can you talk?
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 22

Grandmother Human had many kinds of grandchildren.
They could wiggle and chomp and crawl and breathe and
cuddle and squeak and grab and hoot and walk and talk,
and I see one of them right here!
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 2S
(Notes to parents have yet to be reviewed by an expert).

Guide to Grandmothers and Their Actions
For your own information or to help you explain evolution to your child.

Grandmother Fish

Gnathostomate

We evolved into
gnathostomates over
400 million years ago.

Wiggle. We swung our
tails from side to side to
push ourselves through
the water. To wiggle
like a fish, wiggle side
to side.

Chomp. Jaws helped us
catch and eat other
animals. The other fish
didnt have hinged
jaws.

In the water were
vertebrates, such as
jawless fish, and
invertebrates, such as
squids. On land there
were invertebrates, such
as centipedes.

Grandmother
Reptile

Amniote

We evolved into
amniotes about 300
million years ago. We
laid eggs that could
survive on land.

Crawl. We crawled on
our bellies, with our
legs splayed out to
either side, like
salamanders do today.

Breathe. When we were
still fish, we evolved
lungs and nostrils to get
more oxygen. Lungs
allowed us to evolve
into land animals.

In the water, many sorts
of jawed fish had
evolved. On land, there
were now flying insects,
such as dragonflies.

Grandmother
Mammal

Eutherian

We evolved into
mammals about 200
million years ago. The
mammal pictured is a
placental mammal, who
bore live young and
nursed them like we do
today.

Cuddle. We evolved
cuddling as part of
nursing our young.
Both of these behaviors
are governed by the
cuddle hormone,
oxytocin.

Squeak. We squeaked
with the backs of our
throats. We still use the
throat for emotional
sounds, such as
laughing and crying.

In the water, reptiles
had evolved into big
predators. On land,
dinosaurs ruled. In the
air were pterosaurs and
birds.
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 24


Grandmother Ape

Hominoid

We evolved into
primates about 60
million years ago, just
after the dinosaurs were
wiped out. We evolved
from monkeys into apes
about 30 million years
ago.

Grab. We evolved four
hands that helped us
climb trees. In humans,
our rear hands have
evolved back into feet
for walking on the
ground.


Hoot. We use our
mouths as well as our
throats to hoot and coo.
Hooting and cooing are
social activities, like
squeaking. Its hard to
be sure just when we
started hooting.

In the water, mammals
had evolved into big
predators. On land,
mammals were
spreading and evolving
into new types, and so
were birds.

Grandmother
Human

Homo sapiens

We evolved into Homo
erectus about 2 million
years ago, and they are
commonly described as
the first humans.
Various other human
lines evolved, and we
evolved into Homo
sapiens about 200,000
years ago in Africa.

Walk. Strictly speaking,
we had already been
walking on four legs for
over 200 million years,
and we evolved a fully
bipedal stance about 2
million years ago.

Talk. Our whole society
is based on rational
communication and
abstract thought.
Researchers disagree
over when we started
speaking, with
estimates ranging from
50,000 years ago to 2
million years ago.

We humans are a recent
species, so most animal
species that are alive
today, in the water and
on land, were alive
when we appeared.
Some animals have
gone extinct since then,
such as the wooly
mammoth and the
saber-toothed cat.


}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 2S
Correcting Common Errors
Use these notes to look for and correct any misunderstandings that your child may have.

Common Error Instead
We descended from one
fish or pair of fish, or one
early human or pair of
early humans.
We descended from a large number of early jawed fish, and a large number of early
humans. Evolution means a change in a population not in individuals. Some
individuals left no surviving descendants. The luckier ones are each the ancestor of
every human alive today.
Individual animals
changed into new forms.
No individual animal changed form, such as from a fish to a reptile. Instead,
children are a little different from their parents. After many generations, these
differences added up, and the newer animals are different from the older ones.
Humans appeared when
an ape gave birth to a
human.
The differences between a parent and a child are small. Only after many
generations when all the differences add up do the descendants represent a new
kind of animal (or species). This book uses the friendly term grandmother to
mean ancestor and grandchild to mean descendant. In between
Grandmother Fish and Grandmother Reptile, there were millions of
generations of intermediate grandmothers.
Evolution progresses
toward the human form.
If elephants were writing this book, it would end with Grandmother Elephant, and
the elephants would think that evolution progresses toward the elephant form.
Animals evolve into all sorts of new animals, and we just happen to be one of them.
Fish evolve into reptiles,
reptiles into mammals,
and so on.
Fish evolve into all sorts of things. Mostly they evolve into different kinds of fish.
Only one kind of fish evolved into reptiles. Animals are still evolving today, but
they are evolving in new ways, never repeating the evolution that happened long
ago.
Evolution adds traits. Thats true, but evolution also takes traits away. Grandmother Mammal had fur,
but whales dont have fur even though theyre descended from her. Snakes dont
have legs and apes dont have tails even though their ancestors did.
We started as fish. Before we were fish we were underwater worms, and when life started we were
some sort of goo. This book starts with fish because very young children can relate
to fish.
}onathan Tweet uianumothei Fish - uiaft 26
Patterns in Human Evolution
Help your older child see these patterns in our
evolutionary history.

From Breathing to Speaking
Grandmother Reptile can breathe. Grandmother
Mammal can use her breath to make a squeaking noise.
Grandmother Ape can use her mouth to shape the
squeak into a hoot. And Grandmother Human
forms words with her mouth.

From Swimming to Walking
Grandmother Fish can move her fins to help her swim.
Grandmother Reptile can move her legs to drag herself
across the ground. Grandmother Mammal can walk
with her legs and feet underneath her. Grandmother
Ape can use all four feet as hands to climb and to walk
along branches. Grandmother Human can use her back
two feet for walking and her front two feet for
holding things.

From Wiggling to Walking
In some ways, each individual human develops in a
pattern that echoes the evolution of our species. A baby
cries with the back of her throat (squeaks) before she
makes word-like noises with her mouth (hoots), and
she hoots before she talks. She wiggles before she
crawls and crawls before she walks. Talking and
walking are the last great milestones of early childhood
development, just as they were late, great milestones for
our lineage.

From Solitary Life to Society
Lots of animals have evolved social lifestyles, us
included. Many kinds of mammals are solitary, and
even herd animals dont really form social bonds as we
know them. With all mammals, however, there is at
least a bond within the family. Starting with
Grandmother Mammal, being together as a group
became more important than ever to our ancestors.
Various kinds of mammals have evolved group
dynamics of mutual bonding and cooperation, such as
prairie voles, naked mole rats, elephants, monkeys,
dogs, hyenas, lions, and dolphins. All the great apes
have social lives to some extent, especially us. Biologists
used to say that the fittest individuals were the
strongest one. That was called the law of the jungle.
But for the last several million years, our ancestors have
lived in groups. The apes that could get along best with
their relatives and neighbors were the ones that
prospered. Eventually our ancestors evolved language,
and now we can work together in ways that were never
possible before. We spread across the world by
communicating and cooperating.

Thank You
Thanks for friends and strangers who helped me
with the text of this book. So far, thats Sora Battey,
Sean Dawson, George Skaff Elias, Rob Furey, Rob
Heinsoo, Tracy Hurley, Brian Joughin, Malice
Kendrick, Mischa Krilov, Bob Kruger, Eric Meikle,
Margaret Mills, Matt Sernett, Susan St. John, Jenny
Tynes, John Tynes, and Richard Wieser. If I missed
you, let me know.