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  • Your Inner Fish

  • A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
  • Written by: Neil Shubin
  • Narrated by: Marc Cashman
  • Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (27 ratings)

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Your Inner Fish

Written by: Neil Shubin
Narrated by: Marc Cashman
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Publisher's Summary

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.

©2008 Neil Shubin (P)2008 Books on Tape

What the critics say

“A delightful introduction to our skeletal structure, viscera and other vital parts - and evidence that learning the secrets of the human body need not unhinge you. ...[Shubin] is a warm and disarming guide....Future researchers, aware that the ingredients of our evolutionary precursors are part of the human recipe, may well find new ways to prevent the wear and tear on our fish-begotten bodies. And who knows? Maybe one or two of them will have had their first taste of the marvels of human evolution in Neil Shubin’s anatomy class.” (Los Angeles Times)

“The antievolution crowd is always asking where the missing links in the descent of man are. Well, paleontologist Shubin actually discovered one....A crackerjack comparative anatomist, he uses his find to launch a voyage of discovery about the evolutionary evidence we can readily see at hand....Shubin relays all this exciting evidence and reasoning so clearly that no general-interest library should be without this book.” (Booklist, starred review)

“With infectious enthusiasm, unfailing clarity, and laugh-out-loud humor, Neil Shubin has created a book on paleontology, genetics, genomics, and anatomy that is almost impossible to put down. In telling the story of why we are who we are, Shubin does more than show us our inner fish; he awakens and excites the inner scientist in us all.” (Pauline Chen, author of Final Exam)

What listeners say about Your Inner Fish

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Understanding the history of humans

Understanding what makes us biologically human, and how much that ties us to the rest of life here on our planet, is one of the most humbling experiences. This book does just that. It clearly explains the genetic and historical links we share with other life. And at the same time fills the reader with wonder at the incredible scientific journy that led to this understanding.

A must read.

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Now I Get It

So much makes sense now having been given the background. Although complicated, Shubin arrives at an inescapable truth. Definitely worth the journey.

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Fossils and their role in understanding evolution

Great book detailing fossil expeditions, genetic experiments and epiphanies about where our eyes and ears (etc.) came from. Very easy to follow, exciting and insightful.

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