Your Inner Fish

Posted by : Rev. Ouabache | Friday, April 17, 2009 | Published in

I'm currently in the middle of reading Neil Shubin's great book Your Inner Fish which is about his discovery of the transitional fossil tiktaalik in the far reaches of Arctic Canada back in 2004. I'm only about half way through the book and it's absolutely amazing. It is a little more on the technical side than recent books on evolution but it makes you feel that he never talks down to you. And he does a great job of linking the anatomy of ancient fish to what you see in modern day amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals (yes, including humans). I now know more about animal physiology than I ever thought I would care to know. He makes the subject interesting and has a good style. I'd recommend the book to anyone who is interested in biology and evolution. Here is a quote that I'm loving right now:
One of the joys of science is that, on occasion, we see a pattern that reveals the order in what initially seems chaotic. A jumble of that becomes part of a simple plan, and you feel you are seeing right through something to find its essence.
And here's a cute little music video from the Penn Reading Group on tiktaalik:

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