I picked up this book with great interest. I remember, twenty years ago, reading “The Naked Ape” by Desmond Morris and “The Territorial Imperative” by Konrad Lorenx. Both books were well written and made a profound impact on my view of human nature. Will “The Upright Ape” make a similar impact?

The author, Dr. Aaron G. Filler certainly has the qualifications to write on this subject. He is highly qualified in both anthropology and in medicine, earning his MA in anthropology in 1979, his MD degree in 1986 and also his PhD in 1986. Besides his training in anthropology and evolutionary theory, he is also a world famous neurosurgeon for his skill treating spinal disorders. As an expert in both fields, he has much insight into what kind of spinal structure is needed to support upright verses horizontal posture. Through the years, he has advised some of his fellow anthropologists by examining their fossil finds and their professional papers.

The stimulus for his book and his choice of title “The Upright Ape” began in 1981 when a fellow anthropologist placed in his hands a seemingly inexplicable twenty-one-million-year-old fossil. “The bone had the totally unique features found in humans, but it was from a creature that lived fifteen million years too soon.” After studying this fossil, Filler believed that it can be explained, but Darwin’s Theory, as it presently stood, could not explain it. Filler realized that a broader, more general theory of evolution would be required, one that incorporates the phenomenal growth of scientific knowledge gained over the past twenty-five years.

The fossil given him had its origin in a volcanic region along the Uganda-Kenya border that was studded with numerous twenty-two-million-year-old mammalian fossils from the Miocene era. The most surprising fossil was a nearly complete mid lumbar vertebra that was assigned to the species Proconsul Major. I think this is the fossil Filler examined in 1981. Based on his expertise in medicine as well as anthropology, especially his skill in spinal disorders, Filler claims this fossil is the defining proof of a revolutionary new idea. It is proof that the common ancestor of humans and apes probably already had an upright stance, bipedal locomotion, and did not require the use of arms and hands for locomotion.

Filler felt that this was an entirely new genus among the hominoids—basically, an entirely new kind of animal. It was a primate that not only stood erect, but could not walk comfortably in a horizontal position as modern apes do. This revolutionary discovery is the core of Filler’s book. Modern apes evolving from an upright ancestor is not the general consensus of Darwinian Theory, so, based on many new discoveries, Filler felt some updating of the theory is warranted. Sections of his book trace the development of scientific understanding of how new species of animals have changed through time, starting before Darwin’s General Theory of Evolution and continuing to the present. I didn’t know the German poet Goethe was one of the pioneers in this field. Filler provides an interesting history of how the Theory of Evolution was developed and why it is widely accepted by scientists today. He tried not to get too technical. “I propose to make my case by proceeding simultaneously in both the formal academic arena and in the broader sphere of access provided by a book written for the general public.” He succeeds to some extent, but the book is still pretty technical.

Anthropologists who study Australopithecus and Homo are convinced that upright bipedalism must have arisen from a quadruple common ancestor with a chimpanzee. However, there is no definitive fossil evidence at all for this position. All the evidence, which Filler reviews in detail in his book, actually points the other way when it is fully and fairly considered. There are presently four great hominoids on our planet: Orangutan, Chimpanzee, Gorilla, and humans. Only humans have an upright posture. Filler argues that both Sahelanthropus and Orrorin fit the description of being human; both may be reasonable candidates for ancestry of the chimpanzee lineage as well. He goes on to say that if this evidence for an upright bipedal, hominiform lineage is accepted, then either of the two above species can be seen as a human ancestor for the chimpanzee, which would turn Darwin’s theory upside down.

I think Dr. Filler has marred what might have been a very good book on science by crossing over into religion and theology and trying to refute the beliefs of Christianity. He is not an expert in these fields. I think he should have let his sound scientific findings stand on their own merits and state his thoughts about religion in a separate book. In spite of that, however, if you are interested in cutting edge discoveries in anthropology and in a proposed updating of the theory of evolution that accounts for new discoveries, you will find this book very interesting.