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

by Neil Shubin. Paperback, 240 pages, published 2009. Black-and-white graphics and photos. Very good pre-owned condition. No writing, no stains, no missing or torn pages. Binding is tight. Minor signs of shelf wear on the cover, all cosmetic. "Have you ever wondered why the human body looks the way it does? How did it become the complicated, quirky, amazing machine it is today? Why do our hands have five fingers instead of six? Why do we walk on two legs instead of four? It took more than 350 million years for our species to take shape, and paleontologist and professor of anatomy Neil Shubin shares the answers to these questions about human evolution. Using fossils, embryos and genes, he reveals how our bodies are the legacy of ancient fish, reptiles and primates--the ancestors you may not have known were in your family tree. He shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our heads are organized like long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genomes look and function like those of worms and bacteria. This book presents science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible and told with irresistible enthusiasm." Shubin's writing is wonderfully engaging, and this best-selling book also became a PBS series. 🤓