Neil Shubin is a highly respected professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago. Your Inner Fish describes the discovery of the Tiktaalik 'transitional fossil' made a couple of years ago and also delves into the linkages between humans and our 'inner fish' ; linkages in our evolution that tie us to fish and right back to the earliest bacteria.

This really is a superb book on many levels. If you thought that Indiana Jones made a great case for becoming an archaeologist, then perhaps Prof. Shubin will do the same for evolutionary biology and paleontology. His enthusiasum for the subject runs throughout the book and makes it exciting. Imagine discovering the "found link" (a line I liked from his book - biologists have a problem with the term 'missing link' because it usually, like in the case of Tiktaalik, ends up referring to a 'found link'!) of Tiktaalik and having your predictions be borne out.

Some how Prof. Shubin even manages to make living in a tent in the arctic for several months sound exciting, even though he does not skimp on the details of the hardship as well.

Did you know there is a direct link between the bones in our ears and jawbones in ancient fish? Do you know how many (many many) ways we are linked to other animals, both modern and ancient, on this planet? The evidence is not only convincing and voluminous, it is also interesting, intriguing and cool!

One of the most interesting things I learned from the book was the role that teeth have played in our evolutionary past. I think (if I rememebr this right) that the 'basic plan' for teeth also allowed the evolution of scales and then from scales to feathers. The way that very simple patterns evolved over time is extraordinary in terms of its simplicity and power to 'build bodies'.

I am interested in evolutionary biology, the fossil record and so on. If you don't want to purchaes a text book but still want to really learn something about the subject in a way that is easy for the layman and manages to link together different fields (genetics, molecular and evolutionary biology, palaentology) then this is the book for you!