Your Inner Fish - The Library of the Uncommons

Hardcover, 240 pages

Published June 11, 2008 by Pantheon Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-7139-9935-8

(2 reviews)

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 …

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.From the Hardcover edition.

7 editions

Soh Kam Yung reviewed Your inner fish by Neil Shubin

On the evolution of our Inner Fish.

5 stars

A fascinating book to read to learn about how life on earth is related to each other for one simple reason: we are all descended from one common ancestor. Changes may have occurred as all life on Earth branched out from that common ancestor, but you can still trace that common lineage between us all; even between humans and fish.

Shubin is best known for discovering Tikta`alik, but he uses his other experiences (searching for other fossils, teaching human anatomy, running a lab that explores both palaeontology and genetics) to help guide the reader as he shows the various ways we are connected to various life forms on Earth: to fish via our hands and arms, to amphibians via the way our heads and faces developed, to reptiles via the way reptile jaw bones became parts of our inner ear and to mammals via the way our teeth develop.

He …

A fascinating book to read to learn about how life on earth is related to each other for one simple reason: we are all descended from one common ancestor. Changes may have occurred as all life on Earth branched out from that common ancestor, but you can still trace that common lineage between us all; even between humans and fish.

Shubin is best known for discovering Tikta`alik, but he uses his other experiences (searching for other fossils, teaching human anatomy, running a lab that explores both palaeontology and genetics) to help guide the reader as he shows the various ways we are connected to various life forms on Earth: to fish via our hands and arms, to amphibians via the way our heads and faces developed, to reptiles via the way reptile jaw bones became parts of our inner ear and to mammals via the way our teeth develop.

He sums it up by showing that evolution can only work with what it has, explaining why some parts of our body seems to have developed in a haphazard way. The obvious answer is because our original body plan started out as fish and as we developed, parts of us get moved about, leading to all sorts of strange routes taken by our body parts as they moved from the original fish-related positions to where they are now.

He also shows that some of the problems that ails us are due to this fish to human way to development. Probably the most unexpected is the reason we hiccup; it was a response originally required by tadpoles to help breathing, but is now a relic response that causes hiccups.

It is such insights and others in the book that make you understand just how we are all connected to one another and to all life on earth. And you will definitely learn to appreciate your inner fish.

chitinousform

rated it

Oct. 14, 2021