Neil Shubin

From the tiny bones in our mammalian ears to the arrangement of individual bones in each of our limbs, Neil Shubin lays out a fascinating picture of the many ways in which our modern human bodies are abounding with remnants of a more "fishy" body and lifestyle. Many features are obvious when studying a skeleton, several more become apparent when described and illustrated, and still others, such as predictive gene behavior, come to light only with experimentation. This book had many aha! show more moments, and spoke forcefully to my inner paleontologist, which had me half questioning my less scientific career choices. Marvelous. show less

A very readable account of the evolutionary history of the human body. IMO, the title sells the book short because it’s not strictly fish-focused in explaining how and why we share similar traits with other creatures. Also, it’s not just history. The author is a paleontologist and takes us along with him to the digs where some of the discoveries about these evolutionary links were made. I enjoy reading books by science journalists but they never convey the level of enthusiasm that comes show more from a book written by someone who has made the science itself their life’s work, such as this does. Easily 5 stars. show less

YOUR INNER FISH reminds me of Richard Dawkins' THE ANCESTOR'S TALE, the reading of which gave me truly new insight into the workings of physical evolution. Even though I devoured Dawkins' work some time ago, I can say the same for Shubin's book. Shubin, however, does not delve as deeply into his subject as Dawkins nor present as many details, hence the subject I've used for this review. Also, while Dawkins' book may challenge the conceptual skills of a college graduate, Shubin's is, I feel, show more as appropriate for young adults of, say, high school level reading ability, as it is for older adults.

Both authors are far, far more readable and capable of sustaining a reader's interest than the father of evolutionary theory, Charles Darwin, was. I would greatly prefer to reread both YOUR INNER FISH and THE ANCESTOR'S TALE than to plow through the dry facts in Darwin's ORIGIN OF SPECIES again.

While I believe it is fairly accurate to observe that Dawkins explains the process and the proof of physical evolution partly in terms of molecular structure and function, Shubin does so primarily by demonstrating that more or less every part of the human anatomy has its counterpart in creatures of far simpler structure with origins that predated the earliest modern humans by millions of years. It is fascinating to see how primitive physical structures changed in location, form and function over the 500 million or so years that animals with body structures have existed on the earth. Not all of these are particularly intuitive, either; for example, I'd have never guessed that the tiny bones in my middle ear originated as gill arches in fish!

Paleontology finds a prominent place in Shubin's book. The importance of the fossil record to our understanding of evolution is well illustrated by the discovery of Tiktaalik, a fossil fish with the rudiments of modern wrist bones in its fins. Shubin does not stop with his successful comparisons of modern humans and ancient fish, however. If we proceed farther into the realm of rudimentary life forms, we see the equivalence of the notochord in worms with our own spinal column. Without belaboring the fact or using biological names for organisms, Shubin also demonstrates the principle behind taxonomy and the grouping of life forms into kingdoms, families, genus, species and other such categories.

Among my favorite “pet peeves” is the almost universal human practice of speciesism, the faith-based belief that humans are superior to and hold natural dominance over other animals. (Early Christians even wrote this belief into their bible.) If there is one thing that should cause such believers in human supremacy to reconsider their assumption, it is the fact that every structure in their bodies has evolved from equivalent structures in the bodies of other animals and that even the structure of their individual cells can be seen in the simplest unicellular microbes. Without the mitochondria in their bodies' cells to convert sugar and oxygen into energy, they'd cease to live, yet those mitochondria once were free-living microbes! If our bodies hurt or sicken, the malady is in many cases traceable to the fact that our bodily structures began in aquatic environments and have yet to adapt perfectly to bipedalism. Shubin's book is not only instructive but, more importantly, is also humbling. It adroitly shows humans' place in the much larger animal kingdom and helps us see that we are only a point on a continuum of constantly evolving life forms.

I heartily recommend YOUR INNER FISH to every reader from teen years through adulthood who wishes to understand humanity's place as a life form among many such life forms on the earth and how we came to be where we are. I do wish the book were longer, for the final sections dealing with evolution-related illnesses are all too brief, but if Shubin's book awakens one's curiosity. Dawkins' THE ANCESTOR'S TALE would be an excellent follow-on. show less

Most popular science books are to one degree or another biographical, and in some ways that's the most interesting portion of this book, as whatever else is going on, Shubin is tracing how the demands of his profession led a field operator and museum rat into making themselves over into a biochemist.

Biography, both Shubin's own and that of other notable scientists, then becomes the backbone for the process of how Darwinian theory became operationalized over time by increasingly detailed show more understanding of the biochemical basis of life needed to make the whole intellectual construct work as actual science, meaning predictive value from the general to the particular.

The most striking thing about where the science now sits, is the reality that our genes looks more like a real-life example of "The Blob" in action, with the propensity of recombination and absorption of otherwise alien DNA having been needed to create multi-cellular life forms, and how this is an ongoing process, and a real driver of evolution. show less