Structure

“Your Inner Fish” is laid out for the optimum understanding of complicated information much of which is unknown to the average person. The author, Neil Shubin, does not lay his work out in a chronological order because that tale would start some 500 million years ago. He beings this book by indicating that his work is his passion and explaining how a field paleontologist prepares for an expedition. The experienced paleontologist will predict where he can find the fossils he is looking for, how old the rocks will be and the kind of rock that he will find them in.

Shubin describes his triumph in finding the fossil of the Tiktaalik which is a creature that evolved from a fish that while retaining some characteristics of a fish also “grew” some amphibian features which allowed him to crawl to earth. Shubin then makes his case for the undeniable...