Second, science does not have all the answers. At the same time, they conduct experiments in the laboratory that will help them understand the structure and functioning of current organisms. The book explains how paleontologists and evolutionary biologists make predictions about the history of life on earth and then go about looking for fossils, footprints, and other evidence. First, scientific knowledge is based on empirical evidence derived from the observation of the natural world and not just laboratory work. Your Inner Fish makes several references to the tenets of the nature of science (1). Another example is that the layers of the human embryo and the chick embryo share many characteristics. For instance two genes, responsible for hearing and vision separately in man, are combined in a mosaic fashion into a single primitive gene responsible for the development of 20 odd eyes in the box jellyfish. The explanation of why the human body functions in a certain way can be found within an organism somewhere on this planet. From headless worms to hairy polar bears, we share characteristics with nearly every living being on earth. In this process of unearthing our evolutionary tree, Shubin shows us how there is an entire zoo inside our body. The book goes on to explain the evolution of the human body by tracing the origin of different body components like genes, limbs, skull, eyes and skeletal frames to their ancestors.

These and other characteristics make Tiktaalik an important evolutionary link between fish and land animals. However, its head resembles a crocodile’s with nostril-like openings and its fins have wrist-like bones which could have been used to support its body in shallow water, like four-legged animals. Tiktaalik is classified as a fish because it had gills and scales. This extinct fish belongs to the late Devonian period and lived on Earth about 375 million years ago. The book begins with an account of the discovery of the fossil fish Tiktaalik in an expedition by Shubin and his team to the Ellesmere island in the Arctic. The book provides a fresh perspective on evolution by presenting new evidence and many fantastic facts which can be easily understood by the lay reader. He is currently the Associate Dean of Organismal Biology and Anatomy and Professor on the Committee of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago.

Shubin earned a PhD in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard University in 1987. Your Inner Fish is the story of evolution told by a palaeontologist cum evolutionary biologist, Neil Shubin. Book Reviewed Your Inner Fish: The Amazing Discovery Of Our 375-Million-Year-Old Ancestor.

My inner fish