A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

I love this book. It is extremely informative, revolutionizing, and thought-provoking. You will never look at the human body the same way again. After reading this incredible book, you will start to see how alien the human body really is.

I went to a Baptist college and studied science and religion. Old and new testments and the lost books of the bible. In my searching mind I knew that there had to be more a point and click explanation for our existance. I went to school to study chiropractic medicine. Did human dissection. Studied embroyology and I was completely absorbed in the similarities in all of the species. I have studied literature on all these subjects for years. I am 79 years old so it has been a long time. I have never read a treatise that put our existance so succinctly. Neil Shubin is my hero.
Dr. William H. Smith

While I still don't know enough about the evolution of human life to explain it well enough to anyone, this book is one of the few that has helped me understand the interconnectedness living organisms.

I tried reading time Origins of Species, but only made it about half way through. This book I finished, because the author has much more to work than Darwin did. Perhaps now I can go back finish Darwin's book.

"In Your Inner Finish," Shubin poses the kinds of questions we might ponder about the whys of our origins, and then goes on to explain answers to those questions with accessible evidence that he and other pathologists and geneticists have researched, discovered, and figured out.

I need to read this book a few more and watch the documentary to start making the science a part of my common vocabulary.

I'm glad that I'm discussing this book with a few other people in our book club, because there's so much to learn and understand.

I think I'll give a copy of this book to someone for Christmas or Kwanzaa.

A great story, and written such that virtually anyone with even a modicum of scientific literacy should come away with further insight into how the evolutionary history of a species is revealed by careful study of its anatomy.

This is the evolutionary anatomy book I've been looking for for years. A thorough, simple, clear and logical explanation of the history of the human body with names, dates, DNA and diagrams. How that history is clearly evidenced today in the astonishing similarities shared by all boned creatures (seen in skeletal structure and embryonic developement) and leading back to the farthest reaches of the fossil record.
Neil Shubin's qualification, knowledge and experience in this subject pervades his book with eminent authority. I trusted him from the start. His passion and excitement for the subject are infectious. His entertaining style makes this delicious meal of science bite sized and easily digested. And remembered.

This is the evolutionary anatomy book I've been looking for for years. A thorough, simple, clear and logical explanation of the history of the human body with names, dates, DNA and diagrams. How that history is clearly evidenced today in the astonishing similarities shared by all boned creatures (seen in skeletal structure and embryonic developement) and leading back to the farthest reaches of the fossil record.
Neil Shubin's qualification, knowledge and experience in this subject pervades his book with eminent authority. I trusted him from the start. His passion and excitement for the subject are infectious. His entertaining style makes this delicious meal of science bite sized and easily digested. And remembered.

First time I heard about the discovery of Tiktaalik fossil, a couple years ago, I was interested to know more about this striking story and its various implications on our knowledgement of the vertebrate Biology. From the early fishes of the Silurian to modern Tetrapods, the author review the most intriguing anato-physiologic features of human beings, showing us how we share these beautiful - and sometimes weird - anatomical traits. Neil Shubin's book is a didactic way to understand how we become humans - from fishes through the most basal mammal-like reptile lineages - and how they become the most succesful vertebrate lineage inhabiting the lands until the present days. Certainlly, a brilliant narrative and good insights can be found within this book.

I think many of the other reviews have already expressed the same praise for this book that I would. It is written in a way that draws you in, and leaves feeling like you have a much firmer grasp of evolution. It is compelling, intriguing, and well written. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

For those who find human anatomy perplexing rather than obvious or boring, Your Inner Fish helps explain a lot. Where evolution gets to can be interesting, but it is even worse than bureaucratic planning, military strategizing, and religious ceremonies at having any idea what it is doing or why. Take a look at yourself and say, "Welcome, strange accident, to a haphazard world." Well, now that we're here we might as well enjoy it as best we know how.

After reading Shubin's latest book and enjoying it very much, I followed links to this one. It's even better in some ways, extremely interesting.
It's accessible to the general public, yet technically sound as far as I can tell.

I am enjoying reading this, 30 years after taking a course covering much of the portion of the book I have so far completed. The authors enthusiasm for the subject and articulate writing style would make this a good read for anyone with out a lot of biology background who wants to have a better understanding of form and function and how it came to be.

I thought the book was great. It presents much evidence for evolution in an easily understood manner. It traces the development of things like fins eventually becoming arms, and reptile style teeth becoming mammal style teeth. It was scientific, but never dry.

I really enjoyed this book and would reccommend it to anyone who is intriged by the subject. I read the Kindle version and was frustrated from time to time about the diagrams and lables. I liked the book so much I bought the paper back the next week, just so I could see the pictures better.

This is a good, informative book, aimed at an introductory audience. Shubin is a true renaissance-man, and he brings all facets of his expertise to bear on showing how all of us have ancestors in common with fish. The book is a fun read very accessible, and a highly recommended part of a laymen's library.

This is a very brilliant, very accessible book. My only problem that I have with the book is that the common origin of teeth, feathers, and hair weren't explained in great detail. Also, lung evolution was only cursorily described. The explanation of the activity of the Hox genes, the Originator, Sonic Hedgehog activity in the zone of polarizing activity and the descriptions of Eusthenopteron, Tiktaalik and Acanthostega were riveting. One of my favorite books. I would also recommend "At the Water's Edge: Whales with Fingers, Fish with Legs" by Carl Zimmer for those interested in the water to land transition.

I finally finished the book, and I feel so humbled as a human being, and humbled to read such a breakthrough in science literature because of how well this book is written. Shubin makes things easy to understand and makes extraordinary points about how humans can be related to nearly any creature, and how humans are the way we are today. To keep things simple, if you are looking to refresh your biology knowledge or just to read about something interesting, pick up this great read and discover for yourself why this book is so wonderful.

A very clean and understandable adventure and an explanation of not only paleontology, but also evolutionary genetics and contemporary breakthroughs in science. The book is readable though a little dry at times, and presents a broad view of the origins of species from an evolutionary standpoint. Neil Shubin gives his case in terms easily understandable by laymen, and carefully explains all the science. All the scientific theories given in the book are well explained and then proof is provided, as well as predictions successfully made and the results of experiments given.

This is how science workds. It just makes sense.

Very good!

We live in an age when evolution should simply be universally recognized as established scientific fact, but in spite of all the evidence, there are still obscurantist forces out there who loudly claim that there is no evidence of transitional life forms in the fossil record. How anyone could say that, with a book like Neil Shubin's Your Inner Fish existing on the planet, is hard to imagine. Anyone interested in the facts about evolution really needs to buy and devour a copy of this excellent work. Shubin's discussions are fascinating-- e.g. the account of our four gill arches, how our three inner-ear bones are anatomically and genetically derived in part from reptile jawbones. There is a world of evidence out there in plain view for the reality of evolution and for the tree of life on earth, and Shubin's book excels in pointing that out in the most lucid possible way. What a pleasure to read something like this!

In case there is any sustainable doubt about evolution, this book treat the matter both seriously and didactically in a very pleasant redaction. Precisely illustrated, it keeps focus in evolutionary details that more than often get missed in philosophical discussions worldwide.
I truly recommend this book to both evolution "believers" and "unbelievers", because it offers not only an illustrative and supported treatment of each topic, but also a rich and accurate publicly available reference set.
Despite not a single rebuttal to the general evolution theory has been presented since Darwin wrote his masterpiece, this book serves well to clarify the several subjects pointed out as flaws of the evolution theory and above all: Allows the understanding of the presented facts by reviewing the sources for yourself.

If the critics are knowledgeable in the field, then they can go have fun with a textbook.

For the rest of us who just want to discover the origin of ourselves and what it means to be human without having to enroll in a class, we'll stick to this kind of book.

If you've ever wondered how evolution could possibly have produced the myriad life forms we see today, read this book. In clear prose, the author explains the wondrous process of evolution, using biological examples and evidence from paleontology.

I started with the "Universe Within" but now wish I had read the "Inner Fish" first, which is more tightly argued. The discussion of how paleontology, comparative anatomy and recent advances in evolutionary genetics mutually inform each other to create a new understanding of how life evolved on earth is fascinating. Structures are not thrown away but "repurposed" at all levels.

Neil Shubin is a leading paleontologist whose writing style is accessible to anyone. He describes clearly the discovery of the fish that crawled out of the sea onto land, the evolutionary ancestor of the first mammals. Shubin is also an anatomist, so he can provide clear explanations of the development of all the bones in both fish and mammals. This is simply a spectacular text, enjoyable from beginning to end.