Your Inner Fish
A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
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Narrated by:
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Marc Cashman
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By:
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Neil Shubin
About this listen
Why do we look the way we do? What does the human hand have in common with the wing of a fly? Are breasts, sweat glands, and scales connected in some way? To better understand the inner workings of our bodies and to trace the origins of many of today’s most common diseases, we have to turn to unexpected sources: worms, flies, and even fish.
Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of anatomy who discovered Tiktaalik - the “missing link” that made headlines around the world in April 2006 - tells the story of evolution by tracing the organs of the human body back millions of years, long before the first creatures walked the earth. By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and function like those of worms and bacteria.
Shubin makes us see ourselves and our world in a completely new light.
Your Inner Fish is science writing at its finest - enlightening, accessible, and told with irresistible enthusiasm.
©2008 Neil Shubin (P)2008 Books on TapeListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
Winner - Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, 2008
“A delightful introduction to our skeletal structure, viscera and other vital parts - and evidence that learning the secrets of the human body need not unhinge you. ...[Shubin] is a warm and disarming guide....Future researchers, aware that the ingredients of our evolutionary precursors are part of the human recipe, may well find new ways to prevent the wear and tear on our fish-begotten bodies. And who knows? Maybe one or two of them will have had their first taste of the marvels of human evolution in Neil Shubin’s anatomy class.” (Los Angeles Times)
“The antievolution crowd is always asking where the missing links in the descent of man are. Well, paleontologist Shubin actually discovered one....A crackerjack comparative anatomist, he uses his find to launch a voyage of discovery about the evolutionary evidence we can readily see at hand....Shubin relays all this exciting evidence and reasoning so clearly that no general-interest library should be without this book.” (Booklist, starred review)
“With infectious enthusiasm, unfailing clarity, and laugh-out-loud humor, Neil Shubin has created a book on paleontology, genetics, genomics, and anatomy that is almost impossible to put down. In telling the story of why we are who we are, Shubin does more than show us our inner fish; he awakens and excites the inner scientist in us all.” (Pauline Chen, author of Final Exam)
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In this stunning narrative spanning more than 200 million years, Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field - discovering 10 new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork - masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy.
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"The Rise of the Scientists Who Study Dinosaurs"
- By Daniel Powell on 09-16-18
By: Steve Brusatte
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The Tyrannosaur Chronicles
- By: David Hone
- Narrated by: Gavin Osborn
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
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Adored by children and adults alike, tyrannosaurus is the most famous dinosaur in the world, one that pops up again and again in pop culture, often battling other beasts such as King Kong, triceratops, or velociraptors in Jurassic Park. But despite the hype, tyrannosaurus and the other tyrannosaurs are fascinating animals in their own right and are among the best-studied of all dinosaurs.
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An Engaging Biography of the King
- By Erik on 08-06-18
By: David Hone
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Masters of the Planet
- The Search for Our Human Origins
- By: Ian Tattersall
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Fifty thousand years ago - merely a blip in evolutionary time - our Homo sapiens ancestors were competing for existence with several other human species, just as their precursors had done for millions of years. Yet something about our species distinguished it from the pack, and ultimately led to its survival while the rest became extinct. Just what was it that allowed Homo sapiens to become masters of the planet? Ian Tattersall, curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us deep into the fossil record to uncover what made humans so special.
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Great Book, Some Sloppy Editing
- By DB on 11-23-20
By: Ian Tattersall
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Ancient Bones
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- By: Madelaine Böhme
- Narrated by: Aimée Ayotte
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Africa has long been considered the cradle of life - where life and humans evolved - but somewhere west of Munich, Germany, paleoclimatologist and paleontologist Madelaine Böhme and her team make a discovery that is beyond anything they ever imagined: the 12-million-year-old bones of an ancient ape - Danuvius guggenmos - which makes headlines around the world and defies prevailing theories of human history and where human life began.
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Brave Attempt
- By Bill Treat on 10-15-22
By: Madelaine Böhme
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First Steps
- How Upright Walking Made Us Human
- By: Jeremy DeSilva
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
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Blending history, science, and culture, a stunning and highly engaging evolutionary story exploring how walking on two legs allowed humans to become the planet’s dominant species.
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Mammalian Bipedalism's Many Layers
- By Sarah C. on 06-07-22
By: Jeremy DeSilva
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Nature's Nether Regions
- What the Sex Lives of Bugs, Birds, and Beasts Tell Us About Evolution, Biodiversity, and Ourselves
- By: Menno Schithuizen
- Narrated by: Steven Menasche
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The story of evolution as you’ve never heard it before. What’s the easiest way to tell species apart? Check their genitals. Researching private parts was long considered taboo, but scientists are now beginning to understand that the wild diversity of sex organs across species can tell us a lot about evolution. Menno Schilthuizen invites listeners to join him as he uncovers the ways the shapes and functions of genitalia have been molded by complex Darwinian struggles.
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A New Favorite
- By S. Pepper on 05-15-15
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The Sediments of Time
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- Narrated by: Susan Lyons
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Preeminent paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey brings us along on her remarkable journey to reveal the diversity of our early pre-human ancestors and how past climate change drove their evolution. She offers a fresh account of our past, as recent breakthroughs have allowed new analysis of her team’s fossil findings and vastly expanded our understanding of our ancestors. Meave’s own personal story is replete with drama, from thrilling discoveries on the shores of Lake Turkana to run-ins with armed herders and every manner of wildlife, to raising her children....
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Brilliant!
- By tess koffler on 04-07-21
By: Meave Leakey, and others
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Why Evolution Is True
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Why evolution is more than just a theory: it is a fact. In all the current highly publicized debates about creationism and its descendant "intelligent design", there is an element of the controversy that is rarely mentioned: the evidence, the empirical truth of evolution by natural selection.
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As great as everyone says it is
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Life Unfolding
- How the Human Body Creates Itself
- By: Jamie A. Davies
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
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Where did I come from? Why do I have two arms but just one head? How is my left leg the same size as my right one? Why are the fingerprints of identical twins not identical? How did my brain learn to learn? Why must I die? Questions like these remain biology's deepest and most ancient challenges. They force us to confront a fundamental biological problem: How can something as large and complex as a human body organize itself from the simplicity of a fertilized egg?
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Fascinating Biology ; Distracting Narration
- By Tim on 03-01-15
By: Jamie A. Davies
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The Blind Watchmaker
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The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
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Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
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The Lives of a Cell
- Notes of a Biology Watcher
- By: Lewis Thomas
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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In The Lives of a Cell, Dr. Lewis Thomas opens up to the listener a universe of knowledge and perception that is perhaps not wholly unfamiliar to the research scientist; but the world he explores is also one of men and women, of complex interrelationships, old ironies, peculiar powers, and intricate languages that give identity to the alienated and direction to the dependent. This remarkable work offers a subtle, bold vision of humankind and the world around us - a sense of what gives life - from a writer who seems to draw grace and strength from the very substance of his subject.
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So enlightening and enjoyable!
- By Flora on 03-15-18
By: Lewis Thomas
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What listeners say about Your Inner Fish
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kindle Customer
- 05-06-21
Listen for the Big Picture
Glad I persevered with this one! Draws a oneness between all living things. Beautifully written.
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- a rose cellar
- 04-10-14
Not to be missed!
Where does Your Inner Fish rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
can't say
What other book might you compare Your Inner Fish to and why?
shubin's other book---universe within
What does Marc Cashman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
excellent reading style with right pauses and emphases
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
narrator understands shubin's humour .
Any additional comments?
no
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- Tony Nastase
- 03-28-15
Informative, interesting, not 100% entertaining
The book was certainly informative, though it lacked the profundity or narrative of some other non-fiction works (ie. the Selfish Gene, Viral Storm). I certainly learned a lot anatomically, but I never truly felt "hooked." Nonetheless, I would recommend this to anyone new to (or even well-versed in) evolutionary biology. It was certainly worth the listen.
Recommended further reading - Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
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- C. Tipton
- 06-20-18
Good material, dry recital.
The text itself is very interesting, a look at our evolutionary history through other creatures and the fossil record. It's written in a style so as to be accessable and interesting, with many anecdotes and personal experiences littered throughout.
The narration is technically proficient, never hard to understand or confused. But, while the book itself tries hard to inform without being a textbook, the narration is dry and emotionless, greatly diluting that strength. The narrator infused as much emotion to where the book is rueful, excited, or "choked up" as it did where it described the mechanics of experiments.
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- Megan
- 10-01-19
5 stars!
Excellent story of one mans search for a fish! and so much more. loved this book and all the information and scientific discoveries that help us better understand evolution and how we are the way we are today. Narration was good, could have been better.
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- Felicia J
- 02-09-17
Shubin's enthusiasm is infectious
We humans have bodies that are unique in many ways. But we also share similarities with every other animal on the planet, including some of the oldest creatures ever to walk, swim or wiggle on earth. That's the central theme of Neil Shubin's Your Inner Fish, which uncovers striking parallels between our bodies and those of reptiles, fish, worms and even bacteria.
Why do all mammals have three middle ear bones? How is it that every land-dwelling creature has four limbs with a similar arrangement of bones? This book probes these and other questions, showing how biologists, paleontologists and geneticists are uncovering answers. From listening to this book I learned why men are prone to suffer hernias (blame sharks), why we get the hiccups (blame fish and tadpoles) and how we came to develop color vision (thank primeval forests with a rich palate of things that were good to eat).
Shubin's infectious enthusiasm for science and discovery drives the narrative. He recounts an astonishing story of how we can use the similarities between animals, and the timeline of when and where certain features developed, to find new fossils linking different kinds of creatures. In 2006, Shubin and his team discovered tikaalik, a fish with primitive, limb-like fins it could use to do "pushups" and poke its head out of the water.
I admit to feeling lost at times and needing to rewind large sections of the audiobook, which I blame on my own ignorance of genetics and embryology rather than on the author. Once I get more science reading under my belt, I'll likely return to this book, and I also plan to watch the PBS series of the same name.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-03-24
Incredibly informative!!!
I actually feel smarter for having listened to this book. Enough science to keep you engaged but with more everyday explanations and absolutely great examples (except for maybe the clown thing towards the end) provided to push home the points spoken of.
At first I thought it just be a run of the mill science book because it was not as long as I’d thought but there’s just so much information packed it and none of it seems filler information, it’s all relevant to the topic of the chapter.
Definitely one of my top 3 favorite science books!!
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- Haguruma
- 06-25-15
Wow
Would you consider the audio edition of Your Inner Fish to be better than the print version?
This book goes through great evolution evidence. If your looking for a place to start learning this is it.
Have you listened to any of Marc Cashman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
no
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
just awe lots of awe
Any additional comments?
Read it!
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- Victor Robledo Rella
- 05-24-23
Fabulous
Highly recommended
It confirms how we all are related
I go for the next Shubin book
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Overall
- Aryn
- 07-07-08
Be entertained and educated
Worthwhile! Great information, some of it above the average education level but not so pedantic as to be incomprehensible. Lots of information. Made me take a second look at the history of bodies. Good read.
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12 people found this helpful