The Upright Ape by Dr. Aaron G. Filler Search Amazon for other books by or about Dr. Aaron G. Filler. Rating: Reviewed by: Maurice Williams

The Upright Ape is written by someone well qualified to write on this subject. Dr. Aaron G. Filler has degrees in anthropology and in medicine: MA, MD, and PhD. He is both an anthropologist, trained by some of the leading biologists and anthropologists of our time; and he is a world famous neurosurgeon at the Institute of Spinal disorders at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, specializing in spinal disorders. He is author of Do You Really Need Back Surgery, and he has many published scientific articles and patents. A chance examination of a twenty-two-million-year-old fossil caught his interest because he realized that the mid lumbar vertebrae he was looking at came from an animal that stood upright fifteen million years earlier than any paleontologist postulated an upright posture for a hominoid.

Current theory is that humans evolved from non-human hominoids that moved using their hands to assist in locomotion much as modern apes do today. Present-day hominoids, including chimpanzees and humans, evolved from that early prehistoric hominoid. Humans are considered the only hominoids that walk erect on two feet. The fossil given Dr. Filler had its origin in a volcanic region along the Uganda-Kenya border that was rich in fossils from the Miocene era, twenty-two million years age. Based on his expertise in spines, both as an anthropologist and a surgeon, Filler realized that this fossil is evidence for a revolutionary new idea: the common ancestor of both humans and apes already had an upright stance, walked on two legs, and did not require the use of arms and hands to assist in locomotion.

Filler felt that these lumbar vertebrae belonged to an entirely new genus among the hominoids, really an entirely new kind of animal. It was a hominoid that not only stood erect, but could not comfortably walk in a stooped-over 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 understanding of the Theory of Evolution. Filler felt some updating of the Theory of Evolution is warranted. Filler points out that there have been many spectacular new discoveries in the past twenty-five years that warrant a new appraisal of how evolution progressed. His book presents an overview of how scientists in previous years explained the fossil record and explained how new species develop and earlier species die out.

Up to this time, anthropologists have been convinced that upright posture and walking on two legs must have arisen from an ancestor that did not have an upright posture. That ancestor gave rise to several lines of hominoids including humans and chimpanzees. However, according to Filler, there is no definitive fossil evidence at all to support this conviction. All the fossil evidence actually points the other way.

There are presently four great hominoids on our planet: Orangutan, Chimpanzee, Gorilla, and humans. Today, only humans have an upright posture. Anthropologists have a different idea of what makes us human compared to the other animals, and they do not make assumptions based on the possibility that we have spiritual souls. Based on their understanding of what constitutes a human, some anthropologists argue that both Sahelanthropus and Orrorin fit their concept of being human. Filler then conclude that both may be reasonable candidates for ancestry of the chimpanzee lineage as well: either of the two above species can be seen as a human ancestor for the chimpanzee. Amplifying this in his own words: And so we have a new possibility: a first human child, born to an ape parent, awkward and erect, and always at a loss to keep up with its quadrupedal proconsulid siblings, but nonetheless the harbinger of a new and remarkable species. "The first upright ape was also the first human. In the millions of years that followed, new species branched off and abandoned their upright posture to descend to what we now call ape."

I always had reservations about claims that humans descended from apes, and I'm very much aware of the arguments between creationists and evolutionists. I never thought I would live to see a qualified evolutionist turn Darwin's theory upside down and claim that apes descended from humans. This book will launch a firestorm of debate. I highly recommend The Upright Ape to anyone interested in creationism verses evolution.