The series is both an epic saga and a modern-day detective story - by turns surprising, funny and deeply profound. He weaves together this information from past and present to demonstrate that we humans have a lot more in common than you might think with monkeys, reptiles and even fish. And he reveals insights from scientists who have identified genes that we still have in common with distant forebears. He travels from fossil-hunting expeditions in the Arctic to the deserts of Ethiopia and to the high plains of South Africa. Along the way, he makes it clear that we can thank our fishy origins for many human characteristics.Įndowed not just with scientific expertise, but also with natural wit and a talent for storytelling, Shubin puts all these discoveries in context. Using both the fossil record and DNA evidence, he traces various parts of our body's structure to creatures that lived long, long ago. Shubin has spent much of his life studying our ancient ancestors - searching for the deep pedigree of Homo sapiens.

And our remarkable color vision is a legacy from ancient primates.īased on a best-selling book by paleobiologist Neil Shubin, this scientific adventure story takes viewers from Ethiopia to the Arctic Circle on a hunt for the many ways that our animal ancestors shaped our anatomical destiny. Our skin, hair and teeth can be traced to early reptiles.

Among the key insights: Our hands evolved from the fins of prehistoric fish. The series is full of revelations that will surprise many viewers. From them, we inherited our most remarkable features - as well as quirks like bad backs and hernias. Each of us carries the genetic imprint of creatures that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. That's because the evolution of humans can be traced into the distant past, to the earliest forms of vertebrate life on land and even to the earliest forms of life on Earth. Premiering Wednesday, April 9, 2014, the three-part series reveals a startling truth: Hidden within the human body is a story of life on Earth. Your Inner Fish delves deep into the past to answer these questions.

How did it become the complicated, quirky, amazing machine it is today? It took more than 350 million years for the human body to take shape. Have you ever wondered why the human body looks the way it does? Why our hands have five fingers instead of six? Why we walk on two legs instead of four?

My inner fish