Definition
The expression killer ape does not mean an outstanding aggressive kind of ape, in fact the term is about the anthropological analysis of human aggression. It is scrutinized whether present-day behavior like e.g. the defense of one’s own piece of land, palpability or even murder base on ancestors of humankind. Accordingly, the killer ape is a notably belligerent species on which our instincts might be rooted, because this very ancestor could establish itself due to its special aggression.
As founder of this thesis, Raymond A. Dart (1893–1988) dealt with this issue in his professional article The predatory transition from ape to man, 1953.
Read more about this topic: Killer Ape Theory
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