Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

I'll first give my take on the book then provide a brief summary. Author Neil Shubin is an awesome man and author. His personal anecdotes came at perfect times and flowed with the book in harmony. His writing style is congenial, conversational, humorous, candid, and i'd go as far to say inspirational. Prospective readers - especially those who aren't enthralled by evolution or anatomy - might predetermine the text as being bland and heavy. It's quite the opposite; I found myself laughing many times and perhaps the only weakness of the book is that it's too short. I personally enjoy shorter books because I enjoy delving into a few different topics a month. For only 200 pages there is a hell of a lot to learn and so much great information jam-packed in an easy-to-understand way. The author is an acute articulator, and has a good habit of recapitulating unfamiliar topics. This is an unconventional evolution book. Scientist Theodosius Dobzhansky once famously said "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution". This could have been the name of this book. Having read numerous evolution books before, I would have thought that attaining higher appreciation for it than I already have was an unattainable goal, but reading this book shattered that notion because my appreciation for evolution is substantially heightened. Nothing is more enlightening than finding out the truth of your existence up to your very faults. The book is split by 11 chapters. The first four explore the theme of how we can trace the same organ in different creatures. I'll briefly summarize: - Chapter 1-4: The author starts by describing his legendary trip to Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada. He describes the struggles and the significance of his finding: The Tiktaalik; a creature from the late Devonian period (375 million years ago) that currently holds as the most well-established evolutionary transition from fish to amphibian. I've read about the Tiktaalik before in one of Dawkin's books, but I was surprised to find out that the author of this book actually discovered it. His expedition is a fascinating read in itself because the author is a great storyteller, and seems to be a really humble, laid-back, and fun guy. He all of the latter not only when sharing his personal experiences, but when speaking on behalf of his chosen subjects as well. He describes how he ended up near the arctic - and on the Pennsylvania highways - when looking for his fossils of choice. He gives a general introduction of where and how - using paleontology and evolution - you would find fossils. He elucidates the difference between fish and amphibian (through bone structure and limbs) and mammal and reptile. There's a chapter dedicated to teeth. Teeth are important and extremely helpful when identifying or distinguishing differences among animals (i.e. reptiles and mammals). There's a chapter dedicated limb structure, specifically the hand and arm. The developmental difference between our arms and a fish's fins are very similar early on in development but become vastly different through the process (inside the egg). The author explains why and shows experiments involving the relevant genes for such functions (those involving the ZPA tissue and Sonic Hedgehog gene manipulation, there's a chapter to this called "Handy Genes"). - Chapter 5-11: In each one of these chapters, certain body parts of ours are to our distant ancestors. In other words, we get to explore, interpret, analyze, compare and contrast the our body functions with our distant ancestors. We figure out the inception of many body parts (and functions) and why they evolved to work the way they do for us. Specifically, there's a chapter on: the head, entire body, scent, vision, and ears. Some interesting stuff by chapter: In the field of Embryology, - the study of Embryos, or fetuses - we see that all animals are alike at their very initial gestation stage, with four little swellings called arches that develop around what comes to be the throat area. This is explained in more detail in the book but the fascinating thing is that these arches, depending on the species, all come to have a different but similar function in the body as the conception process gets underway. In the book, the example of comparison are humans and our very distant ancestor shark. Cranial nerve structure is also discussed and compared. Also discussed are headless animals - primitive ones - and the origins of our notochord. There's a whole section on the similarity of active (and inactive) genes among completely different specifies. What happens if you remove tissue, or add certain DNA strands in fruitful area? The evolution of scent is interesting because fish evolving to leave the water and thus become an amphibian, it requires major changes because there are 2 kinds of smelling genes: one for water and one for air. The chapter on scent is epic and so is the proceeding one on vision and then Hearing. We can trace major events in our eyes by analyzing certain eye genes that we share with other creatures. Mammals have the same ear bones as fish, the difference being that wish don't have ears. We come to see that there's major contrast between the functions of these bones for different groups of animals, like mammals and amphibians. These differences are part of why we label an animal to be a "mammal" or "amphibian" in the first place. Our middle ear bones are the malleus, incus and stapes. We come to see that the malleus and incus evolved from jawbones. Of the million years of life, Homo Sapiens have survived extinction and for the time being remain extant. But this doesn't mean that we don't have our problems. There's no preternatural creator ghost behind the complexity or susceptibility of our bodies, but even better: an evolutionary explanation of everything in our body from our genetic workings to our genotypes. Because of such primitive origins, our bodies aren't fully accustomed to certain things and thus thanks to our fish ancestors we develop things like hernias or hangovers. So why is this better then? For one, because it makes perfect sense! And two, by having a natural understanding of our anatomy, we can spearhead our way into the understanding of imperative issues - like disease or congenital defects - that shackle and sometimes terminate the life of many good individuals. This is very important, and so is this book. I'm grateful I read it.

Neil Shubin Stated: "We all know the Darwin fish, the car-bumper send-up of the Christian "ichthys" symbol, or Jesus fish. Unlike the Christian symbol, the Darwin fish has, you know, legs. Har har. But the Darwin fish isn't merely a clever joke; in effect, it contains a testable scientific prediction. If evolution is true, and if life on Earth originated in water, then there must have once been fish species possessing primitive limbs, which enabled them to spend some part of their lives on land. And these species, in turn, must be the ancestors of four-limbed, land-living vertebrates like us. SURE ENOUGH, IN 2004, SCIENTISTS FOUND ONE OF THOSE TRANSITIONAL SPECIES: TIKTAALIK ROSEAE, A 375 MILLION-YEAR-OLD DEVONIAN PERIOD SPECIMEN DISCOVERED IN THE CANADIAN ARCTIC BY PALEONTOLOGIST NEIL SHUBIN AND HIS COLLEAGUES. TIKTAALIK, EXPLAINS SHUBIN ON THE LATEST EPISODE OF THE INQUIRING MINDS PODCAST, IS AN "ANATOMICAL MIX BETWEEN FISH AND A LAND-LIVING ANIMAL." - This fish crawled out of the water… AND INTO CREATIONISTS' NIGHTMARES Some 375 million years ago, Tiktaalik emerged onto land. TODAY, EXPLAINS PALEONTOLOGIST NEIL SHUBIN, WE'RE ALL WALKING AROUND IN MODIFIED FISH BODIES." SUMMARY: When a member of the Facebook history and current events website I manage posted this … I considered it a kind of mockery of evolution and written by someone with a limited knowledge of evolution. Since then I have discovered it is an authentic archaeological discovery … you can go to the Museum where it is kept and look at it with your own eyes and touch it if they would let you! Neil Shubin has written a very comprehensive book detailing his life as a palaeontologist and some of the very significant discoveries made in his classes in which he taught first year medical students in the dissembling of not animal but donated human bodies and his and their experiences in doing so with regard to what they discovered by the original functioning in what form at what time and the gradual evolution into human hands, forearms, upper arms, chest organs, stomach organs, and of course vertebrae, the neural system of the head and the human body’s intricate nervous system that allows movements of the head, eyes, arms and hands. This book is available in Amazon.com Kindle book and believe me when I say it is the most understandable, written for the public, in terms that the general public can understand, and with many examples, drawings, photograps and other graphic illustrations to help explain the details given by Dr Neil Shubin. It’s better than the “twilight zone,” “science-fiction,” and “watching the little girl and or Michael Jackson skipping down the yellow brick road” ! … Check it out for yourself! It is a fascinating experience for for those who haven’t been accustomed to reading and trying to understand the scientific origins of life and the universe. Harold L Carter / [...]

Pro's: - Light reading. Does not require a Ph.D in biochem, or even a college class. Anyone in high school with an interest in the evolution of vertebrates will easily understand what's being said. - Milestone: this fellow was a leader on an archaeological find that filled in a major gap: the transition from the oceans to the land. That is not to say this is "the" missing link. The author himself will disabuse you of that claim. But it is undoubtedly a cousin if not the actual link. Everyone who wants to discuss evolution should know a bit about Tiktaalik, and this book is a good primer. - Brief. It's easily read in two or three hours. And can be put down and then picked back up again, due to the arrangement of the chapters. I read the majority of it while sitting in the car waiting for my grandkids' school to let out. - Conversational. The editor should be praised. So many books, fiction and non-, become boring or pedantic or circular or repetitive. Shubin moves right along. He repeats himself enough to sound like a human being; how often do we all catch ourselves telling the same joke or story? - Common sensical. He highlights major changes that took place in the entrance to land walking: ribs and necks.. How fossils are in sedimentary rocks, not metamorphic. Cons: - I would have loved more detail on the discovery of Tiktaalik's fossils, and their preparation, and the learning that came from them. There's a nice discussion on jawbones and inner ears, on shoulders and femurs. Similar topics would have been nice. Oops. Gotta run. Thanks for the book...

This is such a great science book that works at so many levels and perspectives; it's amazing how many different areas of evolution Shubin is able to cover in a smaller footprint book of only 201 pgs. The book is written at a level that a relatively smart higher schooler can understand, yet reports on discoveries even the most ardent follower of science will find fascinating; a rare accomplishment in terms of being able to target such a wide audience while satisfying both extremes. The book serves as a personal memoir of Neil Shubin, project lead for the team that discovered the transitional fossil Tiktaalik Rosae. Readers gain insight to the inner-day workings of an authentic scientist. I was very impressed at the breadth of Shubin's capabilities beyond his fieldwork, which was already commonly known to casual followers of science like myself. Shubin's reportage on his personal experiences greatly enhanced my respect for the energy, determination, talent, and patience required to make a meaningful discovery such as Tiktaalik as well as the hours spent in the lab not just validating their discovery, but also developing new methods to validate fossil discoveries in the relatively new field of evo devo and providing insight on new features to look for in the field or even in the drawers of natural history museums (like Matt Friedman, who just discovered the transitional fossil between symmetrical fish and flatfish based on previous fossil finds long stored away, [...]). The book also serves as an adventure story given the Tiktaalik discovery in the remote wilderness of Northern Canada after years of expeditions. From this perspective, I highly recommend that teachers at or above high school biology offer this book to their more promising science students as an extra credit project. Society has largely mischaracterized scientists in general and greatly underreport their contributions. Shubin does an excellent job of portraying the personal satisfaction and enjoyment of practicing science, given America's recent degradation in producing an adequate amount of young scientists from our domestic inventory of students. We need to promote more role models like Shubin to young people, similar to how we promoted astronauts in the 1960's. Other countries get it, more examples like Shubin will help us eventually get it back as well. Shubin also reports on other related findings to help illuminate his discoveries and provide a general update on what we know regarding evolution in general and human evolution as it relates all the way back to single-cell organisms. His reporting on unicellular algae evolving into multicellular organisms within 200 generations (eight years) in the lab was one of several vignettes that helped provide perspective to the degree we've progressed in our understanding of biology. Other examples are the evolution of human eyes and Shubin's direct contributions on the evolution of our middle ear bone back through Tiktaalik to fish gill arches - both from fossil discoveries and through successful experiments performed in the lab given our recent understanding of genetics and bioengineering. In fact, the chapter on human ear evolution is probably the most fascinating chapter given its rich history going back to the 19th century and how subsequent discoveries allowed us to continuously build upon those original findings to the point we can now physically create gill arches in primates or middle ears in fish given our discovering the gene common to both and our recent understanding of how different proteins impact fetal development. Besides a great story, this chapter provided the additional perspective of illuminating how science builds upon previous discoveries. If you loved Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom , another great science book which is how much of the public was introduced to the new field of evo devo, you'll love this book since Shubin is a primary player in the field in terms of explaining the evolution of gill arches to anthropods' upper jaws, to primate middle ears. I was impressed at the breadth of Shubin's discoveries reported in this book; from fossil discoveries in the field to providing explanation for his field discoveries at a cellular level, not to mention successful predictions of where to find such fossils, and physical validation in the lab of the evolution of the human ear middle bone evolution through his experiments. Shubin in worthy of celebrity given his contributions. I for one am grateful for his writing this book and teaching me so much with so little investment of my time - a truly great return on investment!

Historically, mankind has been preoccupied with its own origin, and has proposed a multitude of creation stories to explain its existence (Leeming, 1994). For Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body, this self-fascination and search for truth manifested itself in his career in paleontology and the resulting arctic fossil expeditions. Shubin picks up here in his book, addressing arguably the most significant discovery of his career: a fish-like organism that was discovered by his team known as Tiktaalik. Although other fossils of the same period had been discovered, the significance of Tiktaalik is that it offered an explanation for the transition between fish and tetrapods due to similarities between the wrist-like structure of its fins and the appendages of tetrapods. This ultimately supports a fish-mammal evolution, as implied by the title of Shubin’s work. Shubin proceeds to support evolution by comparing characteristics of humans with that of phylogenetically older species. Embryology provides evidence for Shubin. All animals with skulls share something developmentally. As developing fetuses, they form four arches around what will become their throat; these arches are referred to as gill arches. Comparing these arches between humans and sharks, these arches have a surprisingly similar fate. The first arch forms the jaw and is innervated by the trigeminal nerve in both species. the second arch forms a lower supporting bone of the jaw in both species. It also forms upper bones of the jaw in sharks, which are comparable to the bones of the middle ear it forms in humans (some differences in bone function are to be expected between species; a trend is still apparent). The third and fourth arches both form tissues that support the gills of sharks and allow humans to talk and swallow. This supports the idea of a common ancestor shared between every organism with a skull. Teeth have also been used to support an evolutionary worldview. Conodonts were discovered to be the teeth of primitive, boneless fish. Like human teeth, they had a distinctive sheen due to a hardening substance—hydroxyapatite (which forms enamel today). In addition, an ancient fish (Ostracoderms) with a hydroxyapatite-containing shield was discovered from the same period. In fact, this shield even shares structure with teeth, including enamel and pulp. Shubin used this example to argue that the entire human bone structure has evolved from primitive teeth. Shubin also presented evidence for evolution based on vision. One significant type of molecule in vision is opsins. Humans have three types of opsins that are used to differentiate between colors, but most animals have only two. Examining the genetic composition of the genes, shows that two of the three human opsins are very similar to those of other species, but the third is unique. Shubin proposes that this suggests an evolutionary change in which humans evolved from another species. Shubin made his worldview of materialistic naturalism apparent in his work. When discussing the intricacies of the human eye, he said “When you look into eyes, forget about romance, creation, and the windows into the soul. With their molecules, genes, and tissues derived from microbes, jellyfish, worms, and flies, you see an entire menagerie” (Shubin, 2009, p. 157). He is suggesting that eyes are nothing more than the molecules that they are made of, and that we should not credit God with designing them. He also said, when discussing illnesses, that “Each of these examples show that we were not designed, but are products of a convoluted history” (Shubin, 2009, p. 186). These examples not only emphasize his materialistic naturalism, but also his deeply rooted belief in the origin of man through evolution. All science has an integrated worldview; one can still appreciate the scientific basis of a work without necessarily agreeing with the included worldview. However, I do not completely agree with the scientific basis of Shubin’s book. Shubin bases the significance of Tiktaalik heavily on the presence of a wrist, which evolutionarily connects it to tetrapods. However, I am not confident in this conclusion. A wrist includes “wrist bones that articulate with the radius and ulna” (Luskin, 2008). However, the radius of Tiktaalik, as Shubin presented it in a figure (Shubin, 2009, p. 39), does not articulate anything. This discovery may be an intermediate to the wrist, but I would argue the Shubin was incorrect in classifying this bone structure as a wrist (Shubin, 2009, p. 38). In addition, some arguments are illogical. For example, the author said that humans suffer from knee injuries as often as they do because “they are clear evidence of the pitfalls of having an inner fish. Fish do not walk on two legs” (Shubin, 2009, p. 185). This is assuming that humans are poorly adapted to their environment and are sustaining injuries in common activities. However, the example of a knee injury that the author himself gives is a torn meniscus after “twenty-five years spent carrying a backpack over rocks, boulders, and scree in the field” (Shubin, 2009, p. 185). An injury sustained in extreme circumstances is not evidence of poor adaptation due to evolutionary limitations. From a Biblical perspective, there are theological implications of the worldview presented by the author. The materialistic naturalism that was presented in the work promotes atheism and stands in opposition to creation. In fact, when discussing the intricacies of the eye, Shubin said “When you look into eyes, forget about. . .creation, and the windows into the soul. . ” (Shubin, 2009, p. 157). This explicit denial of a creator is incompatible with a Biblical worldview, as evidenced in Genesis 1:1, which reads “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, English Standard Version). I would recommend Your Inner Fish. Although the author arguably drew premature conclusions as was discussed, there is valuable information for the discerning eye. I am unconvinced that mankind shares a common ancestor with sharks, but the chapter in which this was proposed taught me valuable lessons on embryology. The process of discerning facts from opinions is also beneficial for the reader. Shubin used the example that humans sustain many knee injuries to emphasize his view that being derived from aquatic species has left mankind with inherent weaknesses. This section was very convincing to me until I realized that it is an unfounded extrapolation.

Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin Your Inner Fish is one of the most interesting books ever written about evolution. It tells us two fantastic stories: the story of our bodies and the story of one of the greatest scientific discoveries ever made. It's a fantastic enlightening book that tells us why we look the way we do. This 240-page book is composed of the following eleven chapters: 1. Finding Your Inner Fish, 2. Getting a Grip, 3. Handy Genes, 4. Teeth Everywhere, 5. Getting Ahead, 6. The Best-Laid (Body) Plans,7.The Adventures in Bodybuilding, 8.Making Scents, 9.Vision, 10.Ears, and 11.The Meaning of It All. Positives: 1. One of the most enjoyable science books ever written for the masses. Loved it! 2. One of the few books that actually takes you through a groundbreaking discovery. I'm in awe! 3. Science writing at its best. Mr. Shubin's background in paleontology and biology and his uncanny ability to convey a story, created the perfect storm of science writing. 4. Common ancestry illustrated. 5. Great explanation on how converging sciences led Mr. Shubin to the sight of one the greatest discoveries in support of evolution, Tiktaalik. 6. Tiktaalik is an intermediate between fish and primitive land-living animal. How cool is that? A great example of macroevolution. 7. Use of DNA to trace our history. 8. So many great aha moments in this book. Genetic recipes illustrated, including how our DNA recipe illustrates how to build our upper arms, forearms, wrists and digits is virtually identical in every creature with limbs. 9. Anatomy for the masses. 10. Conception and genes like you have never imagined. How embryos hold the clues to some of the most profound mysteries of life. The patterns of life. 11. Mutants! 12. How the discovery of Hox genes in the 80s changed everything. 13. Smell genes, we dolphins don't need any stinkin' smell genes! 14. So how did eyes evolved? I see... 15. What about the ears? I hear `ya. 16. The overwhelming evidence in support of a fish-to-human framework explained. 17. Great quotes and lucid thoughts abound. Negatives: 1. It's such a good book I have to say I wanted more. I can't wait for Mr. Shubin's next book. In summary, this is a fantastic book that relays the beauty of science at work. The validity of science is justified by its immense success and Mr. Shubin provides one of the best examples. I can't recommend this book enough. Recommendations: "Why Evolution Is True" by Jerry A. Coyne, "The Making of the Fittest" by Sean B. Carroll, "What Evolution Is" by Ernst Mayr, "Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution" by Nick Lane and "The Greatest Show on Earth" by the great Richard Dawkins.

Neil Shubin's "Your Inner Fish" is one of those rare science books that combines a personal tale of discovery with an excellent grounding in the discipline as a whole. Even rarer, Shubin's book is a superlative example of science popularization. He takes a complex and technical field and makes it accessible and universal without ever making you feel that he is "dumbing it down". The field here is evolutionary biology and Shubin's discovery is an astounding proof of the theory; a story so famous as to need to recap. But here it is: Shubin noted tetrapod-like fishes in older strata, and limbed-fish-like early amphibians in later strata and identified exactly the age of the rock he expected to find a transitional form of early amphibian / limbed fish. He used geology maps to find an area of the world that had rock of this age exposed and found it on Baffin Island. Then he organized expedition after expedition for 5 years until - lo and behold - he found exactly the transitional form of tetrapod / fish that evolutionary biology led him to expect: Tiktaalik. Tiktaalik has the head of an amphibian, with a neck, but on a fish-like body with fins. The fins have the skeletal features of tetrapod limbs. It's a tour de force. The chapters where Shubin describes the fossil discoveries and the analysis of these fossils are riveting. But even more riveting are the chapters where Shubin explains the broader biological context for tetrapod evolution - ultimately tying it to a deeper understanding of who we are and where we fit in the tree of life. This is a worldview changing book. Every educated person needs to read and understand this material. I have never seen the subject of evolutionary biology presented better than Shubin does here, and I'm hard pressed to come up with a more entertaining or engaging story of discovery. Highly recommended.

This is a book of high-powered imagination, with a gift of exaggeration and perilous prototypes - - -and a conclusion worthy of the Baron d'Holbach and spontaneous generation. Geneticists have scarcely begun to unravel the geography of the Human Genome and the mysticism of its inner workings, when Neil Shubin comes along and traces its history back to the fish and the crocodile, and one wonders why he did not go farther back to the amoeba and the eukaryote. There is no empirical evidence for the descent of Man from "lower" species or that human beings share a genetic history beyond their own species. What is unique in human beings is the human intellect and will and to pretend that these powers have arisen through biological evolution contradicts the very nature of these faculties. This book does not explain the Schrodinger dilemma which arose at the dawn of the discovery of DNA. He recognized that the laws of Physics could not explain Molecular Biology. This was true, even though atoms, protons, electrons and photons and other subatomic particles were part of the composition of living cells, but the cells themselves did not follow the laws of Physics and did not have their origin in atoms or subatomic particles. Life itself does not have its origin in Physics, nor is there any law of Physics that explains life. Much less does human life have its origin in any other mammalian species. It is a wild guess based solely on similarities , due to a complex of somatic and psychosomatic factors not yet discovered. Anthropological studies have shown that there is a level in human beings that cannot be explained by evolutionary or biological causes. Biology cannot explain that which is specifically human in Homo Sapiens, his volitional and intellectual powers. These specifically human powers are beyond the scope of biological science and are on an entirely different level of reality. Shubin mixes the genetic cartography of human beings with the carrography of other life forms, tracing it back to the crocodile, the shark, the Sea Anemone, the Jellyfish and the frog - and finally to the fish. He posits similarities for descent, and the similarity of embryonic forms a proof of descent. The Human Genome is more than 3 billion units of its DNA, more than the 46 chromosomes that make up its lines of inheritance and more than the 21,000 genes encoded in its DNA. The Human Genome is the semiotic algorithm of a species, the complex algebra of a unique and specific human being. The algebra of human genetics is not merely biological, it has a semiotic purpose beyond chemical and organic compounds. Human DNA and its genetic codes is more than biological. Neil Shubin, in his book, has not done his homework, and draws parallels from "lower" life forms to explain certain phenomena in human beings. But similarityies are not causes or vestiges of the genetics of non-human ancestors. The work is a book of great imagination, but to call it "scientific", when it is based, not on human genetics,but on the genetics of wolves, elephants, crocodiles, and fish, is to mistakethe croak of a frog for the voice of Luciano Pavarotti, the chirping of cricksts for the New York Philharmonic or a nest or robins for the Taj Mahal. It does not explain that which is specifically human in human beings and confuses the generic with the specifc differentia in Homo Sapiens. Father Clifford Stevens Boys Town, Nebraska

Your Inner Fish est le best seller de Neil Shubin, le livre qui l'a fait connaître au grand public. Et pour cause : c'est un très bon ouvrage de vulgarisation sur la théorie de l'évolution. A partir de la découverte d'un fossil, Tiktaalik, Neil Shubin nous emmène dans un voyage à travers les âges pour nous montrer comment notre corps est l'héritier de millions d'années d'évolution. Cet ouvrage est facile à lire et propose la synthèse de nombreux domaines des sciences, de l'anatomie à la paléontologie, en passant par la génétique, tout en rendant accessible au lecteur non scientifique les derniers développements autour de cette fameuse théorie. C'est un excellent livre pour aborder l'évolution. Je précise que la lecture de ce livre en anglais est relativement simple et ne demande pas énormément d'efforts pour qui connait un peu l'anglais.

Faaaahk yeah dude! Si ud busca callarle la boca a su amigo/a, conocido/a o familiar sobre su absurdas creencias nacas religiosas creacionistas, utilice a Hitchens, Dawkins o este libro. Muy recomendable!

Muy interesante para saber uno de los pasos de nuestra evolución con los fósiles encontrados en forma de pez.

Very simple and straightforward book, even high schoolers could enjoy it who have basic biology knowledge.

This book is a fascinating view on the evolutionary legacy of the human body. How much we (and other related animals) owe our current body design to ancestors in the past. Evolution works by modifying what already exists, so one can usually trace the evolutionary history of species by tracing their body plans. Animals that share similar body plans tend to be related to each other. That doesn't mean similar forms (that's convergent evolution), it means they're built out of the same materials, using the same methods. The latter point is quite important, as that relates to DNA, giving us a second method for examining evolutionary history- compare the DNA of the organisms, with an eye towards the building genes. Overall, this is a fascinating book and a good example of solid science. I enjoyed reading the book, and found that it was suited to academics and general audiences. Shubin has done a very good job in making a fossil fish from the arctic turn into a fascinating story that's well worth the read. If you ever want to give a skeptic evidence on human origins and the evolution of species, this book also does that very nicely. Well done Dr. Shubin.