What a great book
I personally feel that this should be required reading for every biology or anatomy and physiology class in the country. I read the book over the summer and have been looking for ways to work it into my science class. It is a lucid explanation of why the human body is such a wonder and at times such a Rube Goldberg device. It all makes perfect sense in an evolutionary light. The author's opening chapters are enlightening in his explanation of the predictive power of the Theory of Evolution and how it has been tested repeatedly and supported by the evidence. I am very happy to see so many other teachers finding and utilizing this book with their classes.

There Really is Nothing (Entirely) New
This is a somewhat breezy overview of the deep links between humans and all other animals that have lived on earth, including not merely fish but worms, jellyfish and even the earliest one-celled creatures. Choosing different aspects of the human body (e. g. hands, heads, sense of smell, hearing, vision etc) Shubin describes how they developed from features present in ancient forms. The earlier forms often served quite different functions but were modified over eons of time in ways quite traceable through the fossil record or DNA. Indeed one of Shubin's main points is that the ancient forms were not replaced but were virtually endlessly modified over time to assume and support (often awkwardly) new functions and support different ways of life. The bodies of living animals (including humans) are thus in many respects Rube Goldberg devices, jury rigged amalgams of various parts, many of which originally served far different purposes.

Shubin writes clearly and with obvious enthusiasm for his subject. The book is short and is an overview intended for a general audience. It does not presume any scientific background nor does it present detailed argument or evidence for its positions. It is not aimed at those who are familiar with the field. There is a subtext against intelligent design, but this position is never explicitly articulated much less argued. It is present only in the implications that follow from Shubin pointing out how many of the modern forms fit their current functions clumsily. The drawings in the book, unfortunately, are only sometimes helpful. The book also has fairly extensive suggestions for further reading. Overall a very good, and very basic, work of popular biology.

Excellent primer on evolutionary processes
In terms of physical makeup, how did human beings get to be what they are? In order to provide some answers, the author's journey of discovery took him to a remote site in the Arctic to look for fossils. This site fit the requirements of containing exposed sedimentary rocks dating back some 370 million years ago, to the time when previously found fossils begin to show terrestrial rather than purely aquatic adaptations. With a combination of luck and skill, he succeeded in finding what he was looking for: the fossil remains of a creature that had the anatomy not quite of a fish but not quite of a land animal either. From that starting point, the author provides anatomical examples of how human adaptations - everything from limbs to teeth to the inner ear - can be seen to have evolved from much simpler organisms.

The study of fossils and anatomy does have its limitations in that only gross similarities can be noted; the process itself is hidden; and there is not much that can be done experimentally. But the subject matter can be approached from a different angle. The author recounts initial experimental methods in embryology that found an "organizer" site of cells that appears to control growth in embryos. When these types of cells of one species were substituted for another, they still enacted their role of organizing. Significant progress since the 1980s in genetics, especially the discovery of the Hox gene, has unlocked the role of DNA in explaining how the "organizer" works. Scientists can then search out the similarities of DNA in different species.

The author combines his knowledge of paleontology and anatomy with genetics and molecular biology to posit how single celled organisms could have developed the means to combine together over time to the point of developing bodies. The details here are rather sketchy - as this book is a primer not a technical work. The study is limited to a discussion of how certain anatomical structures developed as life became more complex. It is interesting to consider the external circumstances that were at work. The primary motivation for assuming more complexity appears to be the desire to evade predators. The first appearance of bodies appears to have coincided with a noticeable increase in oxygen in the earth's atmosphere.

One note: This book is about science not religion, but I could not help but being struck by an analogy the author draws between developing life and the construction of a building: the role of DNA in the cells of a body is analogous to there being a blueprint of a building in every brick. In other words, instead of the plans coming from the outside, life develops from plans from within. On the basis of this insight, it should be fair to say that intelligence has to be inside rather than outside; that is, the Intelligent Designer is not separate and apart from all of Creation.

Deserving of the praise
As interesting and informative as other reviewers have promised it to be.
If one is a Creationist however, you will not like this book.

Well-written and entertaining book deserves a place on your shelf
If you are interested in a good, nontechnical book on how much our body design owes to our evolutionary past, this book could be for you. Shubin is an excellent writer. There is not a boring page in the book. He has a real knack for making complex ideas understandable without talking down to the reader. This is lost on a few reviewers who seem to mistake clarity for lack of depth. If this book turns some readers on to investigate science more deeply, that will be a great thing.

In particular, his account of the evolution of wrists, ears, eyes, and even animal bodies themselves, as evidenced by both fossil evidence and DNA similarities makes it clear that if a "Designer" were responsible for all this, "he" would be more of a tinkerer, making use of old parts and forcing them to do new things. Naturally these changes took millions of years to happen, being the slow result of tiny mutations in each generation of life. This is the thing that is so hard to comprehend for most who doubt this explanation for life's diversity. One can't directly comprehend two billion years of life's evolution. But science shows us that its record is written in our bodies themselves. We all carry this record, and we should be proud that we've made it this far.