Some Assembly Required

Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA

By: Neil Shubin

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Paperback | 15 January 2021

At a Glance

Paperback
288 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
19.8 x 12.9 x 4

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The author of the bestselling Your Inner Fish gives us a brilliant, up-to-date account of the great transformations in the history of life on Earth.

Over billions of years, fish evolved to walk on land, reptiles transformed into birds that fly, and ape-like primates changed into humans who walk on two legs, talk and write.

This is a story full of surprises. If you think that feathers arose to help animals fly, or lungs to help them walk on land, you'd be in good company. You'd also be entirely wrong.

Neil Shubin delves deep into the mystery of life, the ongoing revolutions in our understanding of how we got here, and brings us closer to answering one of the great questions – was life on earth inevitable…or was it all an accident?

About the Author

Neil Shubin is the author of Your Inner Fish and The Universe Within. He is the Robert R. Bensley Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, and the provost of The Field Museum of Natural History. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2011. He lives in Chicago.

Industry Reviews

'Neil Shubin provides an up-to-date and utterly engrossing account of the latest thinking on the great transformations in evolution... Frequently funny and always eloquent, Shubin's power as a science communicator is to make you fall in love with evolutionary biology all over again.'
Leon Vlieger, The Inquisitive Biologist

'A rollicking ride...light of touch, anecdote-rich and funny, and yet...still feels satisfyingly informative... What's not to love?'
Dr Tori Herridge, BBC Wildlife

'Neil Shubin is one of the most accomplished writers on evolution and the history of life, and this book is a worthy successor to its predecessors.'
Richard Fortey, author of Life, The Earth and Fossils

'Another winner from Dr. Shubin, who skillfully and thoughtfully steers us through the incredibly fascinating world of DNA and fossils. Dr. Shubin's clear and engaging writing rewards us with a deeper understanding of how all life on our planet is interconnected. Steeped in the paradigm of evolutionary theory, he inspires us to think more deeply about our connectedness with the natural world. Charles Darwin would applaud Dr. Shubin's clear explanations and insightful rendering of the incontrovertible evidence for the evolution of all life on planet Earth.'
Donald Johanson, paleoanthropologist and discoverer of LUCY

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