Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
by: Neil Shubin
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Amazon.com Review:
Oliver Sacks on Your Inner Fish
Since the 1970 publication of Migraine, neurologist Oliver Sacks's unusual and fascinating case histories of "differently brained" people and phenomena--a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome, a community of people born totally colorblind, musical hallucinations, to name a few--have been marked by extraordinary compassion and humanity, focusing on the patient as much as the condition. His books include The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Awakenings (which inspired the Oscar-nominated film), and 2007's Musicophilia. He lives in New York City, where he is Professor of Clinical Neurology at Columbia University.
Your Inner Fish is my favorite sort of book--an intelligent, exhilarating, and compelling scientific adventure story, one which will change forever how you understand what it means to be human. The field of evolutionary biology is just beginning an exciting new age of discovery, and Neil Shubin's research expeditions around the world have redefined the way we now look at the origins of mammals, frogs, crocodiles, tetrapods, and sarcopterygian fish--and thus the way we look at the descent of humankind. One of Shubin's groundbreaking discoveries, only a year and a half ago, was the unearthing of a fish with elbows and a neck, a long-sought evolutionary"missing link" between creatures of the sea and land-dwellers. My own mother was a surgeon and a comparative anatomist, and she drummed it into me, and into all of her students, that our own anatomy is unintelligible without a knowledge of its evolutionary origins and precursors. The human body becomes infinitely fascinating with such knowledge, which Shubin provides here with grace and clarity. Your Inner Fish shows us how, like the fish with elbows, we carry the whole history of evolution within our own bodies, and how the human genome links us with the rest of life on earth. Shubin is not only a distinguished scientist, but a wonderfully lucid and elegant writer; he is an irrepressibly enthusiastic teacher whose humor and intelligence and spellbinding narrative make this book an absolute delight. Your Inner Fish is not only a great read; it marks the debut of a science writer of the first rank.(Photo © Elena Seibert)A Note from Author Neil ShubinThis book grew out of an extraordinary circumstance in my life.On account of faculty departures, I ended up directing the humananatomy course at the University of Chicago medical school.Anatomy is the course during which nervous first-year medicalstudents dissect human cadavers while learning the names andorganization of most of the organs, holes, nerves, and vessels in thebody. This is their grand entrance to the world of medicine, aformative experience on their path to becoming physicians. At firstglance, you couldn't have imagined a worse candidate for the job oftraining the next generation of doctors: I'm a fish paleontologist.It turns out that being a paleontologist is a huge advantage inteaching human anatomy. Why? The best roadmaps to humanbodies lie in the bodies of other animals. The simplest way toteach students the nerves in the human head is to show them thestate of affairs in sharks. The easiest roadmap to their limbs lies infish. Reptiles are a real help with the structure of the brain. Thereason is that the bodies of these creatures are simpler versions of ours.During the summer of my second year leading the course,working in the Arctic, my colleagues and I discovered fossil fishthat gave us powerful new insights into the invasion of land by fishover 375 million years ago. That discovery and my foray intoteaching human anatomy led me to a profound connection. Thatconnection became this book.Click on thumbnails for larger images
Product Description:
Why do we look the way we do?What does the human hand have in common with the wing of a fly?Are breasts, sweat glands, and scales connected in some way?To better understand the inner workings of our bodies and to trace the origins of many of today's most common diseases, we have to turn to unexpected sources: worms, flies, and even fish.
Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of anatomy who discovered Tiktaalik—the "missing link" that made headlines around the world in April 2006—tells the story of evolution by tracing the organs of the human body back millions of years, long before the first creatures walked the earth.By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and function like those of worms and bacteria.
Shubin makes us see ourselves and our world in a completely new light.Your Inner Fish is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible, and told with irresistible enthusiasm.
Oliver Sacks on Your Inner Fish
Since the 1970 publication of Migraine, neurologist Oliver Sacks's unusual and fascinating case histories of "differently brained" people and phenomena--a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome, a community of people born totally colorblind, musical hallucinations, to name a few--have been marked by extraordinary compassion and humanity, focusing on the patient as much as the condition. His books include The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Awakenings (which inspired the Oscar-nominated film), and 2007's Musicophilia. He lives in New York City, where he is Professor of Clinical Neurology at Columbia University.
Your Inner Fish is my favorite sort of book--an intelligent, exhilarating, and compelling scientific adventure story, one which will change forever how you understand what it means to be human. The field of evolutionary biology is just beginning an exciting new age of discovery, and Neil Shubin's research expeditions around the world have redefined the way we now look at the origins of mammals, frogs, crocodiles, tetrapods, and sarcopterygian fish--and thus the way we look at the descent of humankind. One of Shubin's groundbreaking discoveries, only a year and a half ago, was the unearthing of a fish with elbows and a neck, a long-sought evolutionary"missing link" between creatures of the sea and land-dwellers. My own mother was a surgeon and a comparative anatomist, and she drummed it into me, and into all of her students, that our own anatomy is unintelligible without a knowledge of its evolutionary origins and precursors. The human body becomes infinitely fascinating with such knowledge, which Shubin provides here with grace and clarity. Your Inner Fish shows us how, like the fish with elbows, we carry the whole history of evolution within our own bodies, and how the human genome links us with the rest of life on earth. Shubin is not only a distinguished scientist, but a wonderfully lucid and elegant writer; he is an irrepressibly enthusiastic teacher whose humor and intelligence and spellbinding narrative make this book an absolute delight. Your Inner Fish is not only a great read; it marks the debut of a science writer of the first rank.(Photo © Elena Seibert)A Note from Author Neil ShubinThis book grew out of an extraordinary circumstance in my life.On account of faculty departures, I ended up directing the humananatomy course at the University of Chicago medical school.Anatomy is the course during which nervous first-year medicalstudents dissect human cadavers while learning the names andorganization of most of the organs, holes, nerves, and vessels in thebody. This is their grand entrance to the world of medicine, aformative experience on their path to becoming physicians. At firstglance, you couldn't have imagined a worse candidate for the job oftraining the next generation of doctors: I'm a fish paleontologist.It turns out that being a paleontologist is a huge advantage inteaching human anatomy. Why? The best roadmaps to humanbodies lie in the bodies of other animals. The simplest way toteach students the nerves in the human head is to show them thestate of affairs in sharks. The easiest roadmap to their limbs lies infish. Reptiles are a real help with the structure of the brain. Thereason is that the bodies of these creatures are simpler versions of ours.During the summer of my second year leading the course,working in the Arctic, my colleagues and I discovered fossil fishthat gave us powerful new insights into the invasion of land by fishover 375 million years ago. That discovery and my foray intoteaching human anatomy led me to a profound connection. Thatconnection became this book.  |  |  |
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Product Description:
Why do we look the way we do?What does the human hand have in common with the wing of a fly?Are breasts, sweat glands, and scales connected in some way?To better understand the inner workings of our bodies and to trace the origins of many of today's most common diseases, we have to turn to unexpected sources: worms, flies, and even fish.
Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of anatomy who discovered Tiktaalik—the "missing link" that made headlines around the world in April 2006—tells the story of evolution by tracing the organs of the human body back millions of years, long before the first creatures walked the earth.By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and function like those of worms and bacteria.
Shubin makes us see ourselves and our world in a completely new light.Your Inner Fish is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible, and told with irresistible enthusiasm.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Excellent Book
This book gives and excellent discussion of the connection between paleontology, physiology, and evolutionary biology. Every evolution denyer should have one.
Rating: - Yo Momma's a fish.
This is a phenomenal book, and I highly recommend it to everyone.Shubin has managed to write for the biology neophyte as well as the more adept, creating a work that is interesting no matter your level of expertise.If you are unfamiliar with the study of fossils or embryological development, Shubin explains these step-by-step.If you've got a degree in biology, then you will learn new, fascinating ways in which we are linked with our ancestors.(I've been excited to apply the knowledge that ... Read More
Rating: - An Excellent read...
This book is an excellent read and I would recommend it to anyone. This book is for novices and experts alike. Easy to follow narrative, the photos and examples that are shown are explained in depth and allow you to visualize nicely.
Dr. Shubin has really delivered on this one. If you have small children they too will be entranced by images of the Tiktaalik and find it intriguing. Do yourself a favor and grab a copy of this book, it is hands down one of the best books I've read.
Rating: 
- Evolution explained well
"Your Inner Fish" looks at how humans evolved. I was hoping the book would have been more insightful like, 'OK, we evolved from earlier life, but what does that mean, besides where we came from?' Anyway, the book covers evolution well, mentioning things like this:
1. 99% of species which ever lived are extinct.
2. Fossils are one of the major lines of evidence we use to understand ourselves.
3. About 375 million years ago appeared the first intermediate form ... Read More
Rating: - A Great Book
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 one instead of wasting their time studying legends from the bronze age (aka bible).
- Excellent BookThis book gives and excellent discussion of the connection between paleontology, physiology, and evolutionary biology. Every evolution denyer should have one.
- Yo Momma's a fish.This is a phenomenal book, and I highly recommend it to everyone.Shubin has managed to write for the biology neophyte as well as the more adept, creating a work that is interesting no matter your level of expertise.If you are unfamiliar with the study of fossils or embryological development, Shubin explains these step-by-step.If you've got a degree in biology, then you will learn new, fascinating ways in which we are linked with our ancestors.(I've been excited to apply the knowledge that ... Read More
- An Excellent read...This book is an excellent read and I would recommend it to anyone. This book is for novices and experts alike. Easy to follow narrative, the photos and examples that are shown are explained in depth and allow you to visualize nicely.
Dr. Shubin has really delivered on this one. If you have small children they too will be entranced by images of the Tiktaalik and find it intriguing. Do yourself a favor and grab a copy of this book, it is hands down one of the best books I've read.
- Evolution explained well"Your Inner Fish" looks at how humans evolved. I was hoping the book would have been more insightful like, 'OK, we evolved from earlier life, but what does that mean, besides where we came from?' Anyway, the book covers evolution well, mentioning things like this:
1. 99% of species which ever lived are extinct.
2. Fossils are one of the major lines of evidence we use to understand ourselves.
3. About 375 million years ago appeared the first intermediate form ... Read More
- A Great BookA 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 one instead of wasting their time studying legends from the bronze age (aka bible).
