Neil Shubin is a paleontologist who delves briefly into the history of the human body by way of fossils and DNA evidence. Sure, I learned stuff... like how interconnected all the species really are; and that mammals have three bones in the inner ear while other species have fewer; and that there's a gene called Sonic hedgehog; and how to extract DNA using common household appliances and items you could easily buy in a store (a blender is involved and I'm easily reminded of the Bass-O-Matic). But, really this short book (just over 200 pages) was a bit of a slog to get through (although the explanations are clear enough). I've read other non-fiction that was much more compelling. But if you've an interest in fossils and DNA and where we came from, you might find this enlightening. But since this book deals with actual science, I definitely wouldn't recommend this book to Creationists. Though I suppose a Creationist wouldn't be picking up a title like this one in the first place. They're probably looking for something more along the lines of Your Inner Godliness: A Journey Into the Four Thousand Year History of the Human Body. But I digress. ( )

Neil Shubin is a mixture of a paleontologist and some kind of a DNA researcher, which gives him a unique take as a professor of human anatomy. He brings these all together in an enjoyable and very accessible form here.

As this subtitle tells us, this is a look at why we humans are constructed the way we are from an evolutionary perspective. So we learn that the nerves which control our facial expressions follow crazy whirling paths through our heads, and also connect to our ears — and Shubin tells us why. Or he gives us an evolutionary explanation of why we lose our balance when we get drunk. (Our inner ears developed form little organs fish use to detect water movement. And the fluid they developed happens to mix poorly with alcohol.) In general he points out that we are kind of like a souped-up Volkswagen Beetle — we are a more primitive life form that has been awkwardly modified for each new evolutionary challenge — and that is the source of practically all our health problems.

Shubin spends the book tracing many of these modifications back as far down the evolutionary tree as he can get, and quite a few go all the way to the single-cell animals. It's a good story.

One of the more enjoyable aspects of the book are his asides about his personal experience searching for fossils in the field. In one story he describes being a grad student and looking so carefully at an outcrop and failing to find a single fossil — while the rest of the group were filling bags with fossils. His problem was that he had to learn to tune his eyes to recognize the right kinds of patterns and textures. This was something I can relate to. I remember a day as grad student looking so carefully at a Kansas roadside outcrop, and seeing just a simple flat limestone bed of certain vague characteristics. After a while our professor walked up and starting pointing out various features right in front of us — fossil root trails, discolored surfaces, textural changes. I had looked right at them without seeing them. These are fossil soil features on a marine rock unit. Suddenly I was able to get new a sense of the ocean rising and falling; an entire dynamic environment began to come alive. ( )

Neil Shubin was involved with the discovery of Tiktaalik, a very important fossil. In this book he describes that discovery, and also describes which parts of our bodies are evolved from which other parts in ancient animals. It is very understandably written and gives a great introduction into human evolution. ( )

A book well written with a lot of information. A passionate description of the relationships between us (our body) and all the life that came before us (fish, worms, flies, ..).
I wish "intelligent design" believers spend more time reading good books like this instead of wasting their time studying legends from the bronze age (aka bible). ( )

Neil Shubin manages to take a potentially dry subject and transform it into a very accessible and enjoyable account of man's evolution from simple cells. For such a vast and academic subject, there is nary a dry flat moment. His success is that there is enough detail to engage, yet the ideas and discoveries are simply put and clearly explained and really quite fascinating. Read this if you are interested in evolution and the connections between living things. If you would be fascinated by the fact that human male tendency to develop hernia is because he evolved from the shark whose testes were up at the forward part of its body, or perhaps that two of our middle ear bones are derived from the jawbones of fish, then this book is for you.

It would be good present for a budding medical student ready to tackle anatomy. It is a good book to fill the gaps in knowledge that biologists have discovered in the last twenty years. It certainly puts our relative importance firmly in our miniscule evolutionary place amongst the millions of billions of years of creatures that preceding us. I was impressed with this fascinating read. ( )

The book talks about our fishy origins and shows how life on Earth is interrelated. This book is intended for the kind of people who are interested in the evolution process, as well as science in general. ( )

Your Inner Fish is a wonderful and enthusiastically written book on evolution and the connection between all species of creatures on Earth. What do humans have in common with fish? A lot, actually. Neil Shubin takes the reader on an adventure of paleontology and biology to examine different body parts and where they originated and how they developed. In Neil's own words,

Looking back through billions of years of change, everything innovative or apparently unique in the history of life is really just old stuff that has been recycled, recombined, repurposed, or otherwise modified for new uses. This is the story of every part of us, from our sense organs to our heads, indeed our entire body plan.

From the arms, forearms and wrists to the eyes, brain, nerves and ears, to embryonic development and various genetic similarities, Neil combines his excitement for his work with a remarkable prose to provide a basic and general overview of evidence for evolution and common ancestry, in a very simplified way. The many pictures and diagrams interspersed do an excellent job simplifying many ideas, and provide wonderful clarity for many of the ideas. ( )

If, like me, you haven't picked up a biology textbook in the last 20 years, I'm afraid your biological knowledge is completely out of date. In an effort to learn more about the world around me, I've been making an effort to learn about the latest findings. Sean Carroll's books have been enormously helpful, but they are still a bit on the technical side. Neal Shubin's book, Your Inner Fish, covers much the same ground, but in a more accessible and understandable way for the general reader. The findings are absolutely remarkable. The same genes, the same body plans, the same proteins, jury-rigged over eons of time can produce remarkable diversity.

My only complaint is the title of this book. It put me off reading it for a long time. It's too cute and suggests a superficial approach to the topic. Happily, such is not the case. While much of the technical detail is smoothed over, the essence of the new understand provided by molecular and developmental biology is explained in clear and interesting prose that makes the general ideas extraordinarily compelling. It is interesting to me that we have come so far in biology that you can have a paleontologist and and a molecular biologist working side by side in the same lab and not think it is the least bit strange. ( )

Great look into the theorys on how the body was created through evolution. ( )

An engaging tour of human evolution. He answered a lot of things I have wondered about as a curious science layperson- like how and why did this move toward specialized multi-celled bodies begin and how could an eyeball ever evolve?

While Shubin shared the excitement of paleontologists unwrapping clues to missing links I really got a sense of the timespan of the fossil record. The story of each body slowly changing into the next step is truly amazing. Who knew that the three bones of our inner ear are re-fashioned pieces of reptile jaws? ( )

(posted on my blog: davenichols.net)

Neil Shubin has presented a short but wonderful account of man's biological connections to numerous species throughout the history of life on Earth. Focusing mainly on paleontology and anatomy, the book offers a fascinating and highly enlightening glimpse at just how connected we really are to other lifeforms. The book does rely on science, but it is largely approachable by any curious reader. The science is carefully presented throughout, but you don't really need to understand a great deal in order to get Shubin's points.

Fish starts off with the story of Shubin's team discovering the Tiktaalik fossil which established a 'missing link' in the transition of life from water-based to land based. Tiktaalik possessed many fish-like qualities, including scales, but also possessed wrists very much like those of modern mammals. Shubin compares various parts of the anatomy of Tiktaalik and other fish to modern humans and shows striking commonality.

From there, Shubin moves on to comparing various parts of human anatomy, such as hands, teeth, and heads, to numerous fossils and various studies which demonstrate striking similarities and shared histories. The discussion of teeth was particularly enjoyable as the reader learns that teeth came before skulls and are shared from a very early time by all decendent creatures.

We are also treated to examples of modern genetic triggers for bodies which can be traced genetically back to times before creatures had bodies. Shubin wraps up the discussion with quick histories of senses and the organs which have developed to utilize them.

Time and again, Shubin offers nuggests of insight that are fascinating and really establishes his case (fairly well agreed upon in modern biology) for the genetic ties between modern humans and practically any other animal life form you can imagine. His discussions of research into genetic triggers and the common usage of the triggers across widely differing species were fascinating and, for me, the highlight of the book. For example, Shubin explains how a trigger used in mouse genes to kick off eye growth could be used in a fly to kick off eye growth. Not just any eye, though, the mouse gene in the fly created fly eyes, and vice versa. Fascinating genetic research.

This is the book to give to creationists who have any semblance of an open-mind. I cannot imagine anyone curious reader being able to reconcile the information in Fish with any notion of creationism. The genetic traits we share with mice, sponges, fish, and birds are too consistent and obvious to deny, so if you have an open-minded creationist in your circle, get them this book pronto.

A fascinating and quick read, Fish was a delight, simply one of the best books I've read this year, and one I will recommend very highly to anyone willing to listen. Even if you think you know a lot about anatomy, biology, or paleontology, there are sure to be some bits in this book that will be new. Four and one-half stars and very highly recommended to anyone. ( )

This was a really enjoyable book and very interesting. It was very easy to read and explained the technical science in basic language. It covers paeleontology and the finding of a creature that explains a step in evolution. It also covers how we have evolved from single cell organsisms and embryology. Very interesting and would recommend it. ( )

Neil Shubin makes evolution extremely interesting and fun. ( )

A good biology/evolution book for the layman. I'm not all that interested in science, but this held my attention, and it demonstrates many concepts of evolution in easy to understand terms. I was amazed to learn just how much I had in common with fish, primitive worms, etc. ( )

Avete mai pensato che gli esseri umani possano essere discendenti non solo dalle scimmie, ma anche dallo squalo, dalla medusa o dal pesce? Il paleontologo Neil Shubin ha portato alla luce il fossile di un pesce con squame, ma anche con collo e arti, che dimostrerebbe come 375 milioni di anni fa alcuni abitanti delle acque abbiano avviato l'esplorazione della terra ferma.

Niet onaardige inleiding in vergelijkende anatomie en de evolutie van het menselijk lichaam, maar niet meer dan dat. Daarvoor blijft de schrijver naar mijn smaak teveel aan de oppervlakte. Bovendien heeft het eerste deel van ‘My Inner Fish’ veel weg van een jongensboek over hoe spannend en leuk het is om paleontoloog te zijn. Op zich niks mis mee –iedere beroepsgroep zet zichzelf graag in het zonnetje- maar het betekent wel dat er minder ruimte overblijft voor een complex en fascinerend onderwerp. En dan zijn er de melige terzijdes en ditto hoofdstuktitels:

-Getting a grip (over de evolutie van de hand)
-Handy genes (idem)
-Getting ahead (over de vorming van onze schedel)
-Making scents (over ons reukorgaan)
-Adventures in bodybuilding
Etcetera.

Paleontologenhumor vermoed ik. Mij kon het niet meer dan een bleke glimlach ontlokken. Mooie illustraties, dat wel. ( )

Shubin gives a wonderfully simple account of the evolution of the human body. ( )

An entertaining read which reveals many fascinating facts about your very own body. This book will have you peering into the mirror or prodding about your own person with a fresh curiosity.

We are given a tour of human evolution from the fish stage. Yes read that again. Whilst most people accept evolutionary theory, this still comes as a bit of a shock to most.

We are given insight into the search for a famous "missing link", now named Tiktaalik, the bones in our arms and hands, our "fish genes", our teeth, ears, nose and eyes. Good clear illustrations help to convey several otherwise difficult to describe issues.

I enjoyed this book. It made me stop and think which is always a good sign. This author goes on to my "read" list. ( )

The title and cover warrant five stars. But the rest of the book was more like three and a half stars. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the scientific process and how paleontologists go about finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. I also liked the way the author brought together paleontology, genetics, and embryology into a coherent story. Some of the particular topics, like that anatomy of hands and teeth were fascinating.

But going through each aspect of our anatomy, bit by bit, with relatively little analytic content (or at least not much that was new to me) could drag at times. And there wasn't nearly as much to take away from the book as there was from, for example, Sean Carroll's Making of the Fittest. ( )

There are many aspects to the body that make us human. Limbs, eyes, stature, genetics. None of it just happened. And this is evident by looking at all those that have come before us. By clearly showing how evolution is decent with modification, Neil Shubin shows how we can better understand the whys and wherefores of our own bodies by looking at the structure of simpler organisms, namely fish. An excelent example (to me) was the examination of the cranial nerves. I remember them from my anatomy class as seemingly tangled and I couldn't understand why they were so random. But by looking at embryology, fish, and many other aspects of comparative vertebrate anatomy, I now understand how beautifully arranged they really are.

Shubin examines many examples like this, showing how the fossil record show evolutionary history, and how many of these conclusions have been drawn in his field. Included are examples of how body plans form, limbs form, teeth end up in the mouth, and how the ear is formed.

The book is engaging, entertaining, and informative. The author strikes an excellent balance between not talking over the audiences head and not dumbing down the information. Recommended for anyone interested in evolution, paleontology, body plans, and examining many of the missing links that have been discovered. ( )

Just a quick comment for now....this is a fantastic science book, for everyone. Wonderfully written, with lots of amazing detail. If you're thinking about reading it, do it! You'll be glad you did. Best science book I've read in a while..... ( )