Several small bones are also thought to correspond to digits are labeled r=radials. Bones thought to correspond to the wrist bones are u=ulnara and i-intermedia. (The bone thought to correspond to the radius, not labeled, is on the other side of the ulna. Bones are named according to the bones they would correspond to in an terrestrial vertebrate: H=humerus, U=ulna. The rays (“alp” and “plp”) are easy to see in the photo and are attached at and below the so-called “elbow,” an arrangement that would have allowed an unimpeded range of motion at the joint. This lobe-finned fish has bones in its fins in addition to rays, which all bony fish have. These are photographs of Tiktaalik’s pectoral fins. Neil Shubin and colleagues have found several such fish that had fossilized after burial beneath tons of sediment during the catastrophic upheavals of the global Flood around 4,300 years ago. Based on the size of the parts found, paleontologists estimate it grew up to 9 feet long.

This is Tiktaalik, a flat-headed lobe-finned fish found in Devonian rock. (Potential viewers should be warned that during the program Shubin engages in crude dialogue about human male anatomy.) The LA Times calls Your Inner Fish a “smart human anatomy lesson.” 1 However, like the new Cosmos, Your Inner Fish juxtaposes factual human anatomy with tiresome tales that misleadingly suggest Shubin’s evolutionary interpretations superimposed on the fossils, genetics, embryology, and anatomy in the episode are as trustworthy as the observational science. “If you really want to see why you’re built the way you are,” he invites us, “it’s time to meet your inner fish.” Looking ahead to upcoming episodes, Your Inner Reptile and Your Inner Monkey, Shubin portrays the human body as the culmination of many steps that trace a course all the way up the evolutionary tree of life. Recounting the tale of Tiktaalik’s discovery as if it were a suspenseful detective saga, Shubin shows viewers how he recovered this vital missing link, how he unearthed our long-lost “family member” from the Canadian Arctic, how he found the piece of the evolutionary puzzle that supposedly completes our story. Based on Shubin’s book of the same name, Your Inner Fish premiered on PBS this week to convince us that our bodies evolved from fish. Shubin’s three-part series appeals to this curiosity. And people are definitely interested in why their bodies malfunction. Most people are interested in how their bodies work. He claims the human body itself contains the evidence for evolution and that “we are, every one of us, just a jury-rigged fish.” Building a Body

Shubin mingles observable wonders of biology with evolutionary explanations for their origin. Your Inner Fish, hosted on PBS by fish paleontologist Neil Shubin of Tiktaalik fame, blends fishy fables with embryology, genetics, and human anatomy.

Your inner fish series