Your Inner Fish
A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
-
- $13.99
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
The paleontologist and professor of anatomy who co-discovered Tiktaalik, the “fish with hands,” tells a “compelling scientific adventure story that will change forever how you understand what it means to be human” (Oliver Sacks).
By examining fossils and DNA, he shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our heads are organized like long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genomes look and function like those of worms and bacteria. Your Inner Fish makes us look at ourselves and our world in an illuminating new light. This is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible and told with irresistible enthusiasm.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fish paleontologist Shubin illuminates the subject of evolution with humor and clarity in this compelling look at how the human body evolved into its present state. Parsing the millennia-old genetic history of the human form is a natural project for Shubin, who chairs the department of organismal biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago and was co-discoverer of Tiktaalik, a 375-million-year-old fossil fish whose flat skull and limbs, and finger, toe, ankle and wrist bones, provide a link between fish and the earliest land-dwelling creatures. Shubin moves smoothly through the anatomical spectrum, finding ancient precursors to human teeth in a 200-million-year-old fossil of the mouse-size "part animal, part reptile" tritheledont; he also notes cellular similarities between humans and sponges. Other fossils reveal the origins of our senses, from the eye to that "wonderful Rube Goldberg contraption" the ear. Shubin excels at explaining the science, making each discovery an adventure, whether it's a Pennsylvania roadcut or a stony outcrop beset by polar bears and howling Arctic winds. "I can imagine few things more beautiful or intellectually profound than finding the basis for our humanity... nestled inside some of the most humble creatures that ever lived," he writes, and curious readers are likely to agree. Illus.
Customer Reviews
I'm Smarter!
Fascinating read. Slightly disappointed it wasn't longer.
A Persuasive Book That Enjoys Belittling Its Own Points
"Your Inner Fish" is an attempt by a researcher to communicate a discovery and its importance to a wider audience disguised as a journey to find the history of the human body. Some of its points are very interesting, but most of them are over-simplified or unimpactful. I was assigned this book to read before an AP Biology course, and was given positive review by its teacher on this book, so I was excited to get in to the book. Unfortunately, when I actually started reading, I couldn't stand how two simple sentences took two pages for the author to explain, when the meaning should have been common sense. The semi-advanced concepts in the book are hidden behind elementary-level names that become ridiculous to identify as a scientific theory. The path to find the history of the human body should be an interesting concept, but when Neil Shubin writes it, it becomes an over-complicated process of trying to find out why some thoughts are even relevant to the topic, and trying to stay awake during its incredibly algorithmic anecdotal experiments.
Excellent account of an extraordinary story
Shubin tells the story of how Darwin's theory of evolution allowed him to predict the most likely place to find the fossil of a fish that is the common ancestor of every 4 limbed animal that lives on land... and some that managed to find their way back to the sea. Discovered less than 250 miles from the north pole, and after years of searching, Shubin and his team found Tiktaalik. This book describes the path to discovery and the amazing revelations that this fossil has taught us about how all land animals evolved from this creature, 370 million years ago.