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Neil Shubin 's Your Inner Fish Essay

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Review With a writing style that is enabled by an obvious adoration of the subject, Neil Shubin explores the predecessors of the human species in his book Your Inner Fish. Shubin draws upon his unique background as a paleontologist, embryologist, and geneticist to trace defining phenotypical traits that are inherent to humans to even the simplest of organisms. He delves into the difficult details of evolution that have long remained mysteries until recent years, specifically analyzing the transition from water to land, the rise of vision, basic body plans and scent. The magic of the book is that although these discoveries required the brightest minds of the past two centuries, Shubin unwraps them in a delightful manner that is interesting to both high school student and university professor. Your Inner Fish is meant to be persuasive, to educate and formulate opinions. By tracking these seeming complexities of human development, Shubin attempts to persuade a broad audience in the veracity of the common ancestor. Although the premise of the book is based on evolution, Shubin’s purpose in writing the book cannot be defined by such broad terms. He is not interested in simply proving that evolution occurs; in fact, he treats such a consensus as being already understood. It is the actual mechanism that interests Shubin, the path that was taken by the common ancestor that eventually whereon organisms diverged and became the human species. The beginning of the book
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