Your Inner Fish: The amazing discovery of our 375-million-year-old ancestor: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion-Year History of the Human Body - Hardcover

Shubin, Neil

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713999357 ISBN 13: 9780713999358

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2008

Synopsis

Your Inner Fish tells the extraordinary history of the human body. Why do we look the way we do? When did we first evolve the features that we have? Why are we still able to do all the different things we do? And, finally, why do we fall ill in the way that we do? Neil Shubin draws on the latest genetic research and his huge experience as an expeditionary palaeontologist to show the incredible impact the 3.5 billion year history of life has had on our bodies. It turns out that many of our most distinctive features evolved when we were still swimming in the oceans. Shubin takes readers on a fascinating, unexpected journey and allows us to discover the deep connection to nature in our own bodies.

About this title

Review:

'Fascinating...his conclusions take our history back to scarcely conceivable eras and forms' -- New Statesman

'Profoundly fascinating... a magisterial work... if you want to understand the evolutionary history of man and other animals read this.' -- Financial Times

'Simple, passionate writing... a twenty-first-century anatomy lesson' -- Nature

'Stunning case histories ... dazzling work ... Shubin's style is light and easygoing' -- The Guardian

'a compelling evolutionary story...that unpacks the history of our bones'
-- New Scientist

'an intelligent, exhilarating, and compelling scientific adventure story, one which will change forever how you understand what it means to be human'
-- Oliver Sacks

From the Author:

A Note from Author Neil Shubin

This book grew out of an extraordinary circumstance in my life. On account of faculty departures, I ended up directing the human anatomy course at the University of Chicago medical school. Anatomy is the course during which nervous first-year medical students dissect human cadavers while learning the names and organization of most of the organs, holes, nerves, and vessels in the body. This is their grand entrance to the world of medicine, a formative experience on their path to becoming physicians. At first glance, you couldn't have imagined a worse candidate for the job of training the next generation of doctors: I'm a fish paleontologist.

It turns out that being a paleontologist is a huge advantage in teaching human anatomy. Why? The best roadmaps to human bodies lie in the bodies of other animals. The simplest way to teach students the nerves in the human head is to show them the state of affairs in sharks. The easiest roadmap to their limbs lies in fish. Reptiles are a real help with the structure of the brain. The reason is that the bodies of these creatures are simpler versions of ours.

During the summer of my second year leading the course, working in the Arctic, my colleagues and I discovered fossil fish that gave us powerful new insights into the invasion of land by fish over 375 million years ago. That discovery and my foray into teaching human anatomy led me to a profound connection. That connection became this book.

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0713999357
• ISBN 13: 9780713999358
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240