(1888PressRelease)
August 15, 2007 - (Los Angeles) Was Darwin only partially correct? Did apes actually evolve from humans? The new theory of evolution presented in Aaron Filler’s gripping new book “The Upright Ape” (New Page Books) starts off with some daring affirmations that challenge Charles Darwin’s original premises. Both molecular biology and history work in Filler’s advantage and set the ground for the new theories presented in this spectacular and unprecedented work. The book presents to the world the first major restructuring of evolutionary theory in nearly a hundred years. The Darwinian theory of evolution is demoted and a new broader model emerges that incorporates several pre Darwinian theories of life as well as the full impact of 25 years of spectacular advances in molecular genetics.
Darwinian orthodoxy champions gradual biological change and has tended to suppress or ignore evidence of sudden events in the History of Life. Dr. Filler shows how modern genetics can incorporate both sudden mass change and slow gradual change into a new Unified Theory of Evolution. He provides and integrates new explanations of the origin of life, the Cambrian Explosion, the stunning events that led to the emergence of the vertebrates and the mortal struggle between the last dinosaurs and the early mammals. Most remarkably, he details evidence of a sudden emergence of the human form 21 million years ago - making humankind (hominiforms) nearly four times more ancient than any current theory has maintained.
After intensive and strategic research in evolution and neuroscience at Harvard, molecular research in Cambridge, and reassessment of fossils and specimens from collections around the world, Filler is now redefining the very concept of humanity. In this astonishing and persuasive account, Dr. Filler challenges the current Theory of Evolution on the basis that “when existing theories can no longer accommodate the evidence at hand, it is time for innovation and regeneration.” His research is supported by renowned head of the Anthropology department at Harvard University, David Pilbeam, and incorporates pre-Darwinian theories of life by prominent writers, philosophers and researchers as Goethe, Plato and Geoffroy along with modern molecular genetics. A whirlwind of ideas from German, French, English and Egyptian culture, as well from the leading modern laboratories of the world, “The Upright Ape” is an impressive and riveting piece of writing that provides fascinating ideas and evidence for all those interested in evolution and human origins.
“Any thoughtful observer will immediately appreciate that there are similarities among the creatures of the earth. A giraffe, a mouse and a human all have one head, two eyes, one mouth, one tongue, teeth, lips, four limbs, and so on…. What is the basis for this similarity among organisms?” Dr. Filler inquires. Darwin’s theory has always been most effective at showing how species become different from each other but modern genetics now supports pre-Darwinian theories of the genetic forces that act like biological gravity to maintain underlying similarity. The new theory also shows how the biological “earthquakes” take place – sudden and dramatic tectonic innovations like the event that separated the ancestors of insects from the ancestors of the vertebrates. Applying these ideas to human origins, Dr. Filler shows how a single genetic change in the embryological construction plan generates the multiple effects that appear to have suddenly elaborated the upright human body form more than 20 million years ago. This ancient human lineage maintained the revolutionary human body form as the modern ape lineages branched off and descended from it. He reveals and explains this powerful new evidence of a human ancestor for the apes and explains the genetic mechanisms that make this revolutionary idea overwhelmingly compelling.
“The Upright Ape,” available in stores in July, is an introduction for the general reader interested in science, to the strange new world of biology that is just now starting to emerge. You can also visit www.uprightape.com for more information.
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