What is the author's perspective in the nonfiction book, Your Inner Fish?

“Your Inner Fish” by Neil Shubin is told by the author in the first person. The book focuses on the connection between human beings and virtually every species that ever lived – including fish. Shubin’s voice in this work is one of authority. He is a veteran of hundred of digs for fossils that took place literally all over the world. Shubin is also provost of The Field Museum and assistant dean and professor of anatomy at the University of Chicago. He has a vast education in his field with degrees from Columbia, Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley.

Shubin relates his expeditions to the Arctic Circle, China, Nova Scotia and Arizona just to name a few. From these experiences, he enlightens the readers about the amazing fossil finds that he uncovered and most importantly what their significance and connection to man. He tells of the extraordinary effort and years of study and research that is undertaken after the discovery of new fossils. He describes in meticulous detail how scientists reach their conclusions about the fossils and their importance to the history of all living creatures that have inhabited Earth.

Shubin does not rely on his own experiences alone. He calls on the work of a plethora of other scientists who have gone before him. He cites the work of early paleontologists and anatomists and Nobel Prize winners who pioneered the way for modern molecular biologists and DNA supercomputers to catalogue fossils into groups that in essence comprise the family tree for mankind.