http://www.history.com/videos/is-bigfoot-a-hairy-man
FRONTIERS OF ZOOLOGY
Dale A. Drinnon has been a researcher in the field of Cryptozoology for the past 30+ years and has corresponded with Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson. He has a degree in Anthropology from Indiana University and is a freelance artist and writer. Motto: "I would rather be right and entirely alone than wrong in the company with all the rest of the world"--Ambroise Pare', "the father of modern surgery", in his refutation of fake unicorn horns.
Showing posts with label Homo heidelbergensis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homo heidelbergensis. Show all posts
Friday, 3 January 2014
Friday, 6 December 2013
Yowie and Eastern Bigfoot, the Solo connection
The article below refers to the Australian Yowies but the first illustration is a "Marked Hominid"-Which calls to mind the curious circumstance that the type specimen for Marked Hominind is a skull that has a braincase that resembles the so-called Solo Man of Java, a presumptive ancestor for Australia's Yowies. This skull is sometimes claimed as a late Homo erectus but is more usually considered the local counterpart to the Neanderthals. It also seems to be similar to the "Homo erectus" element detected in Latin America and spoken of by Austin Whittall.
Above, the normal-sized and larger (to giant-sized) Yowies, Wildmen and Bigfoot all seem to be basically similar to each other in Australia, in North America, and in fact all the way around the pacific. Below: this category also seems to have a smaller subtype that is generally comparable
(But not necessarily identical to) the Flores Island "Hobbit"
Even if we don't know where "sub-man" ends and "man" begins we do know that, quite apart from myth, legend, and folklore, there was once [and in some cases still seems to be] a group of not-quite-humans spread all over a vast area from Morocco to the Pacific, and from the southern border of Eurasia [which, incidentally seems to have remained the domain of the surviving Neanderthalers]..., southern Arabia, Ceylon, the East Indies, New Guinea, and the greater islands immediately beyond. Everywhere we go throughout this vast swath of the earth's surface we find traces of peoples so primitive that they are variously alleged to have been hairy, to have had tails [a mere profligacy, as we have explained], to dwell in trees, have had no proper language, be cannibals, lack fire and even tools, and generally to be "Those who lived in the land when our ancestors first came from …" Osman Hill has brought to light some exceedingly interesting facts about one of these races called the Nittaewo in Ceylon.
These little, mostly Pigmy, primitives that seem once to have inhabited the whole of the tropical belt of the old world, provide us with most suitable candidates for our Proto-Pigmy Class of ABSMs ... the Sedapa [and] Teh-lmas of the Orient. These little ones are alleged to be really very human in many respects and their footprints are as human as they can be. The facts that they are hairy and gibber do not, as we have seen, necessarily put them into any bestial class nor even out of the human. They could just be leftovers; the "Devil-Sakai" that can really use the trees as highways. If there really are such Proto-Pigmies in the New World, represented by the Dwendis and the Shirus, they must have traveled around the long way by the Bering Straits land-bridge at an early date, and become isolated. [There are also such Pygmies reported in Australia-DD]
And Earlier:
II. PROTO-PIGMIES (Orient,... and possibly Central and Northwest South America). Smaller than average humans, to tiny; clothed in thick black or red fur but with differentiated head-hair that usually forms a mane. Go about in pairs or family groups; wary but inquisitive; apparently a very primitive form of language; toes sub-equal and heels small or pointed; good tree-climbers and swimmers; tropical forests down to seashores and swamps; omnivorous, insect, fish, and small animal eaters plus fruits, leaves; very nervous.
[I am leaving the ones from Africa out of this for now since they seem to be something else-DD]And then there are the more obviously bestial Sub Hominid (=Pongid) types also present in Austraila:
IV. SUB-HOMINIDS (south central Eurasia—i.e....Himalayas, and [Central China]). In every way the least human. Somewhat larger than man-sized and much more sturdy, with short legs and long arms; clothed in long rather shaggy fur or hair, same length all over and not differentiated. Naked face and other parts[reddish brown to] jet black; bull-neck and small conical head with heavy brow-ridges; fanged canine teeth; can drop hands to ground and stand on knuckles like gorilla; ... color, dark brown; nocturnal and somewhat inquisitive; usually flees but may make simulated attacks if scared, and carry them through if the person gives ground and is alone; temperamental and bestial when aroused, being destructive like an ape; foot extremely un- or non-humanoid [Descroibed as "Handlike" with an opposed big toe] Omnivorous but with a preference for insects, snails, and small animals; will [occasionally also] kill larger game. Lone hunter and food collector; wide traveler like all carnivores.And to all appearances the actually-Ape types in Austrailia are most likely to be displaced orangutans
The Australian Hairy Man, Australian Gorilla, Australian Bigfoot, Yahoo or Yowie
http://garyopit.com/yowie-bigfoot/
This cryptozoological animal is an unknown species of hominin using both quadrupedal and bipedal perambulation to access its habitat. It is known in English as the Australian hairy man, Australian gorilla and yowie. Occasional descriptions and illustrations of it had appeared in newspapers, books and memoires from the early day of European settlement. Because specimens were not obtained, to be examined and classified by zoologists, and because so few reports were received of it, this remarkable species has been almost forgotten.
Consequently, it was almost completely unknown until Graham Joyner, interested in the history of science and employed as an archivist in Canberra, unearthed several references to yowies and yahoos in old documents and 19th century newspapers. He published a book The Hairy Man of South Eastern Australia in 1977, which contained 29 early references to the animal, dating from 1842 to 1935, listed some of the names that Aboriginal people used for it and succeeded in bringing it to the awareness of some members of the scientific community.
However, it remained unknown to the general-public until naturalist Rex Gilroy of Katoomba in the Blue Mountains behind Sydney began writing articles for newspapers and magazines in the 1970s, describing his research and requesting reports of observations into the animal. The name yowie was recorded by P. J. Gresser in his 1964 article entitled Manuscripts Relating Principally to the Aborigines of the Bathurst District in which he wrote that the Aborigines of south-eastern Australia, particularly the mountain tribes, feared “the Yahoo or Yowie … an animal of large proportions whose body was covered with masses of long hair…” (Gresser, 1964).
Hair samples, excellent footprints with detailed dermal ridges, photographs and video footage have been obtained. However, no bodies or skeletal remains, essential for identification, have been found.
Homo erectus and Homo palaeojavanicus have been found in Indonesia as million year old fossils, though Homo floresiensis fossils from Flores, on the Australian side of the Wallace Line, are only 13,000 years old. Homo neanderthalensis is known from fossil evidence to have existed throughout Eurasia until about 28,000 years ago. The Australian, New Guinean and Solomon Island bigfoot and the much smaller njimbin / junjadee are most likely related to these species and may have reached these shores as survivors washed out to sea by tsunamis.
In May 1975 at the base of the Cougals, to the east of Springbrook, on the Queensland / New South Wales border, I heard the roaring voice of an unknown animal, which greatly surprised me. I knew the calls of every species and was amazed that I was hearing something completely unknown. It was a short series of loud distinctive roars that emanated from the rocky, steeply sloping cliff a hundred metres away. I attempted but was unable to climb the cliff from where the call came and then the call was repeated. It was most likely the warning roar of a yowie telling me that I was approaching its core territory, though at the time I was quite unable to imagine what kind of animal could produce such a powerful call and remain completely unknown to science.
A close encounter at 2 pm on 5 March 1978 at Best of all Lookouts on Springbrook by national park head ranger, Percy Window, was very interesting because he was a government employee and in charge of a large and popular national park. The witness was a work colleague of a friend of mine, John Duncan, who was able to relate to me a detailed description. A bipedal, gorilla-like primate standing 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) high was clearly observed in Antarctic Beech rainforest in good light from a distance of 4 metres (13 feet). It had a distinctive odor, a grunting voice, a body covered in long black hair, a flat, shiny-black face, large yellow eyes, a sagittal crest, and huge hands. Several other previous sightings on the same mountain and in surrounding districts were reported in local newspapers.
Then in June 1978 at 3 a.m., on a very quiet night with a full moon, I was awakened by a very powerful, continuously repeated roaring-bellowing call. The voice came from lowland subtropical rainforest in Joalah National Park on Tamborine Mountain 300 metres (984 feet) from our house at an altitude of 500 metres (1,640 feet).
The call was a deep-throated, booming “Yee-yee-yee-yee-yee” that continued without a break for 5 minutes. I could clearly hear the sounds being pumped out of a massive chest and the vocalization sounded more like a big primate call. After approximately 2 minutes, three dingos (Australian wild dogs) broke into their characteristic howling. Two of the dingos were approximately 80 metres (260 feet) to one side of the mysterious animal and the third was howling at a similar distance on the opposite side. The sound of these 4 animals in full cry was the most remarkable natural sound that I have ever heard. I was able to accurately judge the call of the unknown animal with the calls of the dingos that I regularly heard.
The yowie’s call was at least twice as loud as and much more powerful than the dingos and after their howling finished the yowie continued its repetitive bellowing for perhaps another minute. Then only the sound of Curtis Falls, Cedar Creek and the chirping of the crickets remained.
The next time I heard the calls of the yowie was at 3-30 a.m. on 1 June 1996 on the slopes of the Koonyum Range at an elevation of 200 metres (656 feet) at Main Arm in north-eastern NSW. I had walked outside for a view of the full moon illuminating a crystal clear night and heard 100 metres (328 feet) away, near a dry creek bed in eucalypt forest, a series of some 90 loud bark-like calls. The calls were always in a series of three, the middle call was always the loudest and it was followed each time by softer call “arroo-ARROO-arroo.”
The beginning of each of the three barks “ARR” was sudden and intense while the final “oo” portion was cut short as it fell off in volume. Between the sets of three barks, a time of about 5 or 6 seconds, a disturbingly strange soft gurgling call, “gu-gu-gu-gu,” could be heard. It continued with very little variation for about 5 minutes with the last couple of series of calls appearing less loud as if it had begun to move off. It was quite unlike the calls of foxes or barking deer that I had heard in Southeast Asia and once again had more of a primate feel to it. The next day I found 3 toe prints in the earth of a creek bank where it had climbed up the slope and each toe was about the same size as a human big toe, slightly reducing in size as if it were a right foot.
At dusk on 3 November 2008 in the Billinudgel Nature Reserve, Wooyung, I had a yowie, approach me to within 10 metres, as I was walking along a track in coastal bushland with a dense tea tree & sedge grass understorey. I was with my dog Banjo near my home when I heard something moving towards me through thick vegetation.
We could hear the gentle sound of a large body quietly pushing through the dense lower stratum of vegetation, 1 to 2 metre high and once every 30 to 40 seconds we could hear a loud crack sound as if two sticks had been hit together. As it drew closer, after 4 or 5 minutes, my dog suddenly gave a double warning bark. I hissed at him to be quiet.
I was surprised that it continued to approach us with the same sound of sticks being hit together. Then after another 4 or 5 minutes my dog suddenly barked a second time, and again I hissed at him to be quiet. This second bark also failed to deter the approaching animal & it continued to get closer with the same cracking of sticks for another 3 or 4 minutes. I had been carefully viewing through binoculars & saw a brown upright animal 1.5 m tall moving carefully parallel to the track I was on and about 6 metres away and then it moved quietly off.
Figure 14. Yowie researcher Pixie Byrnes is sitting in the position where she first obtained clear views of the yowie that she named ‘Humpty’, at 11.30 am on 10 March 2008. The male yowie squatted on the grass in the small clearing towards the top of the photograph before moving off. With Pixie sitting in the same position the next day at 12.30 pm ‘Humpty’ walked out of the trees towards her, and then turned away.
Pixie’s first encounter with a yowie was even more exciting. She states “I was in a paperbark tree lined creek bed, cooking potatoes and steak on a fire that I had made in the river sand, along a lovely shady bank. I never realized that I was not alone until a mob of dogs came rushing in on the other side of the creek only 15m or so away. Up popped a massive yowie from the long grass above the creek, I had no idea it was there at all. I climbed up into a paperbark tree with a pot lid in my hand. By the time I got up the tree I saw three dogs racing around and around this yowie and another dog was already in the yowie’s hand. It was holding it by the muzzle and head and it looked very dead in a very short time.
The yowie, holding on to the dead dog, flung it around at the other dogs and struck them over and over again until they were yelping. The next thing I saw was that those big ugly, horrible dogs ran away from the struggle with their hair all mattered and with the bristles on their backs standing upright. One of them seemed to have part of his face missing. Then the big dark-haired yowie turned and holding the dog in its hand, walked across the flat ground to a big tree. Then it flung the body up into a fork of a tree. The torso of the large golden dog or dingo seemed to be empty or crushed flat.”
Figure 15. A drawing of ‘Humpty,’ watching wild bush turkeys while holding three sticks in his right hand, by Yowie researcher Pixie Byrnes. This was drawn immediately after the encounter at 11.30 am on 10 March 2008.
Figure 16. A drawing of ‘Humpty’ sitting beside a water hole after having washed himself in the early morning during rainy weather, by yowie researcher Pixie Byrnes. This was drawn immediately after an encounter in March 2008.
Figure 17. Cryptozoological researcher and artist John Opit, 14 May 2012 at Limpinwood, examining a small rainforest tree which a yowie had torn open with its fingers to obtain the wood boring grubs. Two yowies had been heard giving their distinctive howling calls from this exact position within heavily vegetated undisturbed rainforest the night before. Yowies use their fingernails to rip the wood away and the result is more efficient and less destructive than the beak ripping employed by black cockatoos in more open forest.
John encountered a yowie nearby on his property at night in the forest and it ran off. His son Simeon saw a 6 foot tall black-furred yowie early one morning near the house.
Consequently, it was almost completely unknown until Graham Joyner, interested in the history of science and employed as an archivist in Canberra, unearthed several references to yowies and yahoos in old documents and 19th century newspapers. He published a book The Hairy Man of South Eastern Australia in 1977, which contained 29 early references to the animal, dating from 1842 to 1935, listed some of the names that Aboriginal people used for it and succeeded in bringing it to the awareness of some members of the scientific community.
However, it remained unknown to the general-public until naturalist Rex Gilroy of Katoomba in the Blue Mountains behind Sydney began writing articles for newspapers and magazines in the 1970s, describing his research and requesting reports of observations into the animal. The name yowie was recorded by P. J. Gresser in his 1964 article entitled Manuscripts Relating Principally to the Aborigines of the Bathurst District in which he wrote that the Aborigines of south-eastern Australia, particularly the mountain tribes, feared “the Yahoo or Yowie … an animal of large proportions whose body was covered with masses of long hair…” (Gresser, 1964).
Hair samples, excellent footprints with detailed dermal ridges, photographs and video footage have been obtained. However, no bodies or skeletal remains, essential for identification, have been found.
Homo erectus and Homo palaeojavanicus have been found in Indonesia as million year old fossils, though Homo floresiensis fossils from Flores, on the Australian side of the Wallace Line, are only 13,000 years old. Homo neanderthalensis is known from fossil evidence to have existed throughout Eurasia until about 28,000 years ago. The Australian, New Guinean and Solomon Island bigfoot and the much smaller njimbin / junjadee are most likely related to these species and may have reached these shores as survivors washed out to sea by tsunamis.
In May 1975 at the base of the Cougals, to the east of Springbrook, on the Queensland / New South Wales border, I heard the roaring voice of an unknown animal, which greatly surprised me. I knew the calls of every species and was amazed that I was hearing something completely unknown. It was a short series of loud distinctive roars that emanated from the rocky, steeply sloping cliff a hundred metres away. I attempted but was unable to climb the cliff from where the call came and then the call was repeated. It was most likely the warning roar of a yowie telling me that I was approaching its core territory, though at the time I was quite unable to imagine what kind of animal could produce such a powerful call and remain completely unknown to science.
A close encounter at 2 pm on 5 March 1978 at Best of all Lookouts on Springbrook by national park head ranger, Percy Window, was very interesting because he was a government employee and in charge of a large and popular national park. The witness was a work colleague of a friend of mine, John Duncan, who was able to relate to me a detailed description. A bipedal, gorilla-like primate standing 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) high was clearly observed in Antarctic Beech rainforest in good light from a distance of 4 metres (13 feet). It had a distinctive odor, a grunting voice, a body covered in long black hair, a flat, shiny-black face, large yellow eyes, a sagittal crest, and huge hands. Several other previous sightings on the same mountain and in surrounding districts were reported in local newspapers.
Then in June 1978 at 3 a.m., on a very quiet night with a full moon, I was awakened by a very powerful, continuously repeated roaring-bellowing call. The voice came from lowland subtropical rainforest in Joalah National Park on Tamborine Mountain 300 metres (984 feet) from our house at an altitude of 500 metres (1,640 feet).
The call was a deep-throated, booming “Yee-yee-yee-yee-yee” that continued without a break for 5 minutes. I could clearly hear the sounds being pumped out of a massive chest and the vocalization sounded more like a big primate call. After approximately 2 minutes, three dingos (Australian wild dogs) broke into their characteristic howling. Two of the dingos were approximately 80 metres (260 feet) to one side of the mysterious animal and the third was howling at a similar distance on the opposite side. The sound of these 4 animals in full cry was the most remarkable natural sound that I have ever heard. I was able to accurately judge the call of the unknown animal with the calls of the dingos that I regularly heard.
The yowie’s call was at least twice as loud as and much more powerful than the dingos and after their howling finished the yowie continued its repetitive bellowing for perhaps another minute. Then only the sound of Curtis Falls, Cedar Creek and the chirping of the crickets remained.
The next time I heard the calls of the yowie was at 3-30 a.m. on 1 June 1996 on the slopes of the Koonyum Range at an elevation of 200 metres (656 feet) at Main Arm in north-eastern NSW. I had walked outside for a view of the full moon illuminating a crystal clear night and heard 100 metres (328 feet) away, near a dry creek bed in eucalypt forest, a series of some 90 loud bark-like calls. The calls were always in a series of three, the middle call was always the loudest and it was followed each time by softer call “arroo-ARROO-arroo.”
The beginning of each of the three barks “ARR” was sudden and intense while the final “oo” portion was cut short as it fell off in volume. Between the sets of three barks, a time of about 5 or 6 seconds, a disturbingly strange soft gurgling call, “gu-gu-gu-gu,” could be heard. It continued with very little variation for about 5 minutes with the last couple of series of calls appearing less loud as if it had begun to move off. It was quite unlike the calls of foxes or barking deer that I had heard in Southeast Asia and once again had more of a primate feel to it. The next day I found 3 toe prints in the earth of a creek bank where it had climbed up the slope and each toe was about the same size as a human big toe, slightly reducing in size as if it were a right foot.
At dusk on 3 November 2008 in the Billinudgel Nature Reserve, Wooyung, I had a yowie, approach me to within 10 metres, as I was walking along a track in coastal bushland with a dense tea tree & sedge grass understorey. I was with my dog Banjo near my home when I heard something moving towards me through thick vegetation.
We could hear the gentle sound of a large body quietly pushing through the dense lower stratum of vegetation, 1 to 2 metre high and once every 30 to 40 seconds we could hear a loud crack sound as if two sticks had been hit together. As it drew closer, after 4 or 5 minutes, my dog suddenly gave a double warning bark. I hissed at him to be quiet.
I was surprised that it continued to approach us with the same sound of sticks being hit together. Then after another 4 or 5 minutes my dog suddenly barked a second time, and again I hissed at him to be quiet. This second bark also failed to deter the approaching animal & it continued to get closer with the same cracking of sticks for another 3 or 4 minutes. I had been carefully viewing through binoculars & saw a brown upright animal 1.5 m tall moving carefully parallel to the track I was on and about 6 metres away and then it moved quietly off.
Figure 14. Yowie researcher Pixie Byrnes is sitting in the position where she first obtained clear views of the yowie that she named ‘Humpty’, at 11.30 am on 10 March 2008. The male yowie squatted on the grass in the small clearing towards the top of the photograph before moving off. With Pixie sitting in the same position the next day at 12.30 pm ‘Humpty’ walked out of the trees towards her, and then turned away.
Pixie’s first encounter with a yowie was even more exciting. She states “I was in a paperbark tree lined creek bed, cooking potatoes and steak on a fire that I had made in the river sand, along a lovely shady bank. I never realized that I was not alone until a mob of dogs came rushing in on the other side of the creek only 15m or so away. Up popped a massive yowie from the long grass above the creek, I had no idea it was there at all. I climbed up into a paperbark tree with a pot lid in my hand. By the time I got up the tree I saw three dogs racing around and around this yowie and another dog was already in the yowie’s hand. It was holding it by the muzzle and head and it looked very dead in a very short time.
The yowie, holding on to the dead dog, flung it around at the other dogs and struck them over and over again until they were yelping. The next thing I saw was that those big ugly, horrible dogs ran away from the struggle with their hair all mattered and with the bristles on their backs standing upright. One of them seemed to have part of his face missing. Then the big dark-haired yowie turned and holding the dog in its hand, walked across the flat ground to a big tree. Then it flung the body up into a fork of a tree. The torso of the large golden dog or dingo seemed to be empty or crushed flat.”
Figure 15. A drawing of ‘Humpty,’ watching wild bush turkeys while holding three sticks in his right hand, by Yowie researcher Pixie Byrnes. This was drawn immediately after the encounter at 11.30 am on 10 March 2008.
Figure 16. A drawing of ‘Humpty’ sitting beside a water hole after having washed himself in the early morning during rainy weather, by yowie researcher Pixie Byrnes. This was drawn immediately after an encounter in March 2008.
Figure 17. Cryptozoological researcher and artist John Opit, 14 May 2012 at Limpinwood, examining a small rainforest tree which a yowie had torn open with its fingers to obtain the wood boring grubs. Two yowies had been heard giving their distinctive howling calls from this exact position within heavily vegetated undisturbed rainforest the night before. Yowies use their fingernails to rip the wood away and the result is more efficient and less destructive than the beak ripping employed by black cockatoos in more open forest.
John encountered a yowie nearby on his property at night in the forest and it ran off. His son Simeon saw a 6 foot tall black-furred yowie early one morning near the house.
G'day, My Name Is Gary
I am the wildlife consultant for ABC North Coast Radio, receiving listener’s calls and identifying animals since 1997. What fascinate me are the reports I receive of encounters with animals that should be extinct. These include ape-man-like creatures called bigfoot or yowies, thylacines, marsupial lions and even mermaid-like animals. See, hear & read about people’s encounters with the unknown. Are they unknown animals, Min Min lights, UFOs, aliens, are there logical explanation?
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Eastern Bigfoot Comparisons and Identity
The following chart was started by a friend on Facebook and I have added copies of the skull to all of his outlines as a constant point of reference. He works primarily with sightings in Ohio.
Below, overlay of Kansas and Gadar skulls (Reversed so lettering reads normally. and this drawing reconstructs the Gardar Man face, which was missing. The indicated landmarks on both skulls are lined up here, bregma to bregma and so on) I find both of these skulls to be a good parallel to different skulls of the "Solo Man" series, some of which seem to be males and some females.
Below is the same Friend's painting representing one of the Ohio creatures.
(I am waiting for word back from him but right now I have not got permission to use his name)
And below, comparative silhouettes showing A) "Littlefoot" or ProtoPygmy type,
B ) Ordinary human and C ) Eastern Bigfoot, generalised composite, compare to above (Males).
(The first one is I believe from Western Pennsylvania)
Below, a painting made for the Kentucky Bigfoot Research team
 |
| Ohio Bigfoot in Winter |
Below are some more portraits of the type (Males) including a selection of beards
Model of face emphasizing the large eyes
Trailcam capture of face image
Neanderthal-like with prominent goatee beard
An exceptionally good Neanderthal type portrait
Eating a Honey Comb by Rob Roy Menzies
Below, a roadside sculpture from Oregon
A Baby Bigfoot portrait by Thomas Finlay
A related report also just posted by Tom Marcum at The Crypto Crew:
Thomas Marcum at The Crypto Crew posted this video link
http://www.thecryptocrew.com/2013/11/possible-bigfoot-howls-recorded-in.html
"This was recorded in Grahn, KY by Tabatha Steagall and she was nice enough to give me permission to use it and enhance the audio.
Now I don't know for sure if this is a bigfoot but there has been a lot of activity coming out of Carter county Kentucky for many years now, so it is very possible it is a bigfoot.
Tabatha told me about the time she let her young son makes some bigfoot calls and was awed when they heard replies. That event happened about 1 year ago.
Thanks
~Tom~"
Kentucky is another place where physical remains of Bigfoot have been reported in the form of teeth, skulls and skeletons. The form of these remains is consistent with the information as given above. And incidentally if these creatures ARE some form of Archaic Homo sapiens, then they are NOT Cryptids, they are NOT unknown: they are members of our own species.
Friday, 1 November 2013
Sykes on Almas Zana's DNA: Yes....and NO
The story of ‘Zana’ the Wild Woman, as Explained by DNA analysis
Published: 01/11/2013
Bryan Sykes, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, has carried out DNA tests on saliva samples taken from descendants of Zana – a so-called ‘wild woman’ captured in the late 19th century in southern Russia, who local people believe was an ‘Almasty’.
Professor Sykes’ research (part of a worldwide analysis of alleged Bigfoot samples), has yielded a remarkable result: that Zana’s ancestry was 100% Sub-Saharan African and that she was most probably a slave brought to the region by the ruling Ottomans.
To answer the riddle and establish what species she belonged to, Professor Sykes has tested samples from six of Zana’s living descendants. He has also recovered DNA from a tooth taken from the skull of one of her sons, Khwit. Such work is highly specialized and Sykes was the first geneticist ever to extract DNA from ancient bone.
But the big surprise in Sykes’ results was that Zana’s DNA is not Caucasian at all, but African. Khwit’s tooth sample confirms her maternal African ancestry and the saliva tests on the six living descendants show that they all contain African DNA in the right proportions for Zana to have been genetically 100% sub-Saharan African.
“The most obvious solution that springs to mind is that Zana or her ancestors were brought from Africa to Abkhazia as slaves, when it was part of the slave trading Ottoman Empire, to work as servants or labourers,” says Professor Sykes. “While the Russians ended slavery when they took over the region in the late 1850s, some Africans remained behind. Was Zana one of them, who was living wild in the forest when she was captured?“
But that theory would not explain her extraordinary features, described by reliable eyewitnesses. There is an even more intriguing alternative theory. Having carefully studied the skull of Zana's son, Khwit, Professor Sykes believes there are some unusual morphological skull features – such as very wide eye sockets, an elevated brow ridge and what appears to be an additional bone at the back of the skull – that could suggest ancient, as opposed to modern, human origins.
And Sykes has raised the bold theoretical possibility that Zana could be a remnant of an earlier human migration out of Africa, perhaps tens of thousands, of years ago. If correct, Zana could be evidence of a hitherto unknown human 'tribe', dating from a distant time when the human species was still evolving and whose ancestors were forced into remote regions, like the Caucasus mountains, by later waves of modern humans coming out of Africa.
One of the Russian Almasty hunters, Dr Igor Burtsev, offers testimony in the Channel 4 documentary that may back this theory up. He unearthed Khwit's skull in 1971 and a few years later, showed it to a group of anthropologists in Moscow. They were, he says 'amazed', and identified a mix of 'primitive' and 'progressive' (modern) features in the skull. Lacking the scientific tools at Sykes' disposal, they could take it no further. Now Sykes is able to propose the theory with some confidence.
It is only a theory at this stage - and a bold and speculative one at that. But Professor Sykes intends to study it much further before reaching his final conclusions.
Zana’s story will feature in Bigfoot Files on Channel 4 on Sunday, November 3rd at 8.00pm. In the programme Mark Evans also meets former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, seven foot tall Nikolai Valuev, who admits to having a bit of a Neanderthal look himself. He is now Duma Deputy (the equivalent of an MP) for Kemerovo in Siberia and fascinated in Almasty. The programme also investigates some of the other claimed sightings of the creatures in Russia.
The series, made by Icon Films, examines the stories behind famous Bigfoot sightings and Mark Evans meets people who believe passionately that other species of hominid exist. A book by Professor Sykes about his research The Yeti Enigma: A DNA Detective Story will be published by Coronet in Spring 2014.
The programme is available to view and there are images available.
Read the story of Zana here.
Tip: Matthew Robinson
Zana’s son Khwit
[CRITICISM: The definite statement that the DNA was Not Caucasian at all but was Sub-Saharan African carries a somewhat different interpretation than Sykes has stated. Recently there have been several news stories about the DNA series which is unique to Africans and NOT shared with the Out of Africa crowd (especially Cauasians) at all. Such stories have been reprinted at Frontiers of Anthropology recently.
The gist of the theory is that the Africans inside Africa were breeding with a local distinct (and now extinct) variety of humans unknown outside of Africa and the inference has been made that this was "Rhodesian Man" or the local variety of H. heidelbergensis /H. sapiens heidelbergensis instead of having anything to do with the Neanderthals or Denisovans.
Saying that Zana's DNA was of a special kind of DNA NOT found in Caucasians might well imply the exact oppositre of what he is claimimg: Zana could be a relic "Rhodesian man" and the structure of Khvit's head and face definitely has that appearance.-DD]
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Sasquatch Genesis
Sasquatch Genesis by David Claerr
http://voices.yahoo.com/sasquatch-genesis-origin-bigfoot-11922139.html
The humans, ancestors of modern Europeans who migrated northward in warmer times, have been forced to retreat back to lower latitudes. Now they have reached the foothills of the Alps. The mountain range to the south is a formidable barrier. The humans are trapped in this last refuge from the encroaching glaciers. Their numbers have dwindled drastically, the survivors engaged in a grim daily battle for survival. Among their competitors are other descendants of their distant ancestors, a race of huge, hair-covered beings that arrived on the continent hundreds of thousands of years before them. These beings prefer the dark of night and are seldom seen in daylight. These Progenitors of the Sasquatch are hardy, more adapted to the cold. They are also few in number, and they hunt and forage over vast distances. They are much like humans in many ways, but much more ancient, and more feral in aspect. They have no need of man's fire, spear or arrow. The humans, even with their primitive tools and fire-building skills, have an increasingly difficult time. Many cannot survive during the high snows and near-arctic cold of winter. Even the hairy
giants, the Ancient Ones, seek the shelter of caves in mid-winter. In this place and time, a most remarkable and significant event takes place.
As the bitter cold of winter deepens, a family of the ancient race travels along a rocky ridge, seeking suitable shelter. The female, a mother of two young juveniles, finds a small cave on the slope. She peers inside and sees the the faint glow of dying embers from a human's fire. She hears the whimper of a small human child, a girl that has been orphaned. Her mother had left only for a moment to look out from the cave in search of her mate, but slipped on the icy surface and fell to her doom. The girl's father also perished in the cold while desperately foraging for food.
The Progenitor mother gently picks up the human child, who is wrapped in a soft deer pelt. The girl is so tiny, so helpless, and so much like her own newborn babes once were. She is moved to compassion for the orphaned waif. Her own children regard the child with curiosity and an almost immediate affection, much as we humans might be endeared to a puppy or kitten. The archaic family adopts and nurtures this young human. There are no other humans of her kind for many leagues in any direction, and also very few of the giant's kind in this region as well. In time, the Ancient Ones become her family; they are all she has ever known since she was adopted. She has little or no memory of her parents. The Progenitors are considerate and kindly, and with them she grows in mutual affection and familial support. In time, as a mature adult, she selects one of the grown offspring as her mate. The two species are are related closely enough that they are genetically compatible, and they in turn have fertile offspring. The human female thus has become the founding matriarch of a new lineage of hominins, a mitochondrial "Eve" for what we now call the Sasquatch.
The matriarchal "Eve" is an exceptional mother, intelligent, resourceful and affectionate. Her children are blessed with the best traits of both their genetic lineages. The father of this new lineage is a skilled hunter and forager, diligent in his efforts for his family's welfare. The small family thrives even in the worst conditions, and in time grows into a mighty clan that will venture out across Europe and cross the steppes of Asia. They follow the herds of fauna across Beringia, the land bridge that connects Siberia with North America in that epoch. Their descendants populate the New World. There they also find other members of their patriarch's ancestral tribe, Ancient Ones that migrated there during the intermittent ice ages, in previous millennia.
This scenario is presented as an introduction to what may be regarded as plausible theory on the origins of the Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot, existing today in North America. "Theory" is not used in a loose or general sense in this essay, as it is based on actual genetic sequencing data, the fundamental interpretation of which has recently been announced as of this writing. The full study, headed by Dr. Melba Ketchum, is soon to be published in a peer reviewed science journal.
The genetic sequencing of over 100 specimens, in mitochondrial and nuclear DNA ranges, including 3 full genome sequencing, is an unprecedented and groundbreaking achievement, and will certainly be one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the 21st century.
The announced findings closely parallel the information that I have independently assembled from many sources, including my own field research. In previous essays, I presented the hypothesis that Sasquatch are a hybrid of modern humans and a progenitor species- archaic hominins, possibly a lineage of what are currently classified as Homo Hiedlebergensis. The Progenitor hypothesis can now be considered a viable theory in that the hard evidence, particularly the sequencing of the Nuclear DNA, which I did not have access to at the time, has now almost unequivocally indicated human/hominin hybridization. I do not know if the exact identification of the archaic hominin, has been established through DNA comparisons. I suggest that further studies compare DNA from the specimens of H. Heidlebergensis specimens of the Atapuerca site, in Spain, if the DNA is recoverable. Fossil skeletal remains of H. Heidelbergensis are those that most closely resemble that of the Sasquatch. (see links to previously published articles in the Resources section below.) Here is an important disclaimer: I have not seen the published study and do not have inside information on the publisher and release date. The assessment of the data may differ significantly from my conclusions presented here; this is my own summary based in part on my own field research, which includes documented footprints, trackways, scat and hair samples, hand-prints, the use of symbols and primitive tools, and various encounters and up-close sightings, as well as genetic sequencing outside of the Ketchum study.
In the press release by Dr. Ketchum, there is mention that the mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from only the females in a lineage, matches DNA of Modern Humans from about 15,000 years ago in South Central Europe. According to my research, this epoch is known as the Franco-Cambrian Ice Age in Europe and also as the Wisconsin Glaciation in North America. The area of Europe, which remained free of glaciers is referred to as the Franco-Cambrian Refuge, because it was a somewhat isolated region where the climate could still support some of the flora and fauna of the northern hemisphere. Humankind in Europe reached a "bottle-neck", a severe reduction of the population to a small percentage of its former numbers, at that time. Under these pressing circumstances, the surviving humans were brought into close contact with the archaic hominins. For a new hybrid lineage to be established, there would necessarily have to be strong familial bonds, which form under the optimal conditions of mutual affection and commitment, such as presented in the proposed scenario above.
The nuclear DNA as reported has sequences that are not shared by currently sequenced hominins or higher primates, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans in the hominins, or gorillas and chimpanzees in the "great apes". Nuclear DNA (nDNA) includes sequences inherited from the males of the lineage. The differences in that nDNA from other primates and known hominins in conjunction with the human mitochondrial DNA is an almost certain indication that what we know as Sasquatch or Bigfoot are primarily a hybrid species, as evidenced in the more than 100 specimens sequenced in the Ketchum study.
There may also be small, scattered populations of archaic hominins still extant that have little or none of the human mitochondrial DNA, that were not represented in the study specimens, both in the Americas and other continents. The Yeti of the Himalayas in particular, may be much closer to the original progenitor species of the paternal lineage. Another possibility to investigate are the Yeren, of China. The Almasty of Russia and Europe are likely closely related to the Sasquatch, though they quite possibly have interbred more with humans. (see the story of Zana listed in the resources section below.)
Another intriguing aspect of the mtDNA sequencing, according to some reports, is that there are some specimens that appear to have sequences shared with some of the most ancient human lineages or haplogroups yet sequenced- similar to that of the Vasikela Kung of South Africa, who speak Khoisan, a language that includes clicks and whistles. (Sasquatch appear to use clicks and whistles to communicate in a similar fashion). If this correlation is correct, and similar data is included in the published study, it may indicate that the Progenitors of the Sasquatch also migrated into the Americas in sporadic waves over several millennia, with some lineages arriving from non-European groups during the earliest Ice Ages.
Additional evidence that could support the study's findings is the filmed high definition footage of Sasquatch, DNA specimens of which are reported to have been included in the Ketchum study. The documentary footage results from the efforts of the Erickson Project, headed by Adrian Erickson. More information can be found at the official site, Sasquatch Quest.
The discovery of a new human/hominin lineage may reveal a genetics "Rosetta Stone" a key to understanding the course of human evolution and the intricate mechanisms of gene expression across subspecies lines. Aspects of the robust genetics of a more ancient or original progenitor may give us insight into the causes and cure of genetic diseases and disorders, and augment gene therapy techniques. Study of the living Sasquatch will yield a wealth of knowledge for anthropologists and open new avenues of inquiry into the origins and nature of Humankind.
RESOURCES:
The Progenitor Hypothesis- Sasquatch as a hybrid species:
http://voices.yahoo.com/bigfoot-dna-report-hypothesis-2011-8786601.html
The Origins of Sasquatch in the Fossil Record:
http://voices.yahoo.com/the-origins-saquatch-bigfoot-as-evidenced-in-10509269.html?cat=58
Analysis of Sasquatch Skeletal Structure:
http://voices.yahoo.com/bigfoot-bones-sasquatch-skeleton-analyzed-compared-10977262.html?cat=58
Sasquatch/Bigfoot Ground Nest, Trackway, Scat:
http://voices.yahoo.com/photos/compelling-evidence-bigfoot-texas-3171342.html?cat=4
Analysis of Cast Sasquatch Handprint:
http://voices.yahoo.com/bigfoot-handprint-discovered-texas-6604970.html?cat=58
Analysis of Sasquatch Tarsal anatomy from Cast Footprint:
http://voices.yahoo.com/i-analyzed-bigfoots-footprint-study-creatures-1377091.html?cat=70
The Story of Zana, a European Alma:
http://voices.yahoo.com/captured-bigfoot-researched-russian-scientists-893181.html?cat=2
Sasquatch Quest website:
http://www.sasquatchthequest.com/
http://voices.yahoo.com/sasquatch-genesis-origin-bigfoot-11922139.html
Sasquatch Genesis- the Origin of Bigfoot
The Theory of Human Hyridization with an Archaic Hominin Lineage
As you travel back through time to the distant past, 15,000 years ago, the European subcontinent is a very different place. It is wild and savage, covered with a mantle of ice and snow lasting almost half the year. You look down from the entrance of a cave to the windswept, rocky plateau below and see the surging herds of the great beasts: mammoth, wooly rhinoceros and bison as they press ever more southward, fleeing from the biting north wind. The snow lions, dire wolves and cave hyena stalk the herds, preying on the stragglers. Year by year, this part of the world has grown colder and more inhospitable. An ice age has descended, the glaciers sweeping south, down beyond what is now Poland, Germany and deep into France.
The humans, ancestors of modern Europeans who migrated northward in warmer times, have been forced to retreat back to lower latitudes. Now they have reached the foothills of the Alps. The mountain range to the south is a formidable barrier. The humans are trapped in this last refuge from the encroaching glaciers. Their numbers have dwindled drastically, the survivors engaged in a grim daily battle for survival. Among their competitors are other descendants of their distant ancestors, a race of huge, hair-covered beings that arrived on the continent hundreds of thousands of years before them. These beings prefer the dark of night and are seldom seen in daylight. These Progenitors of the Sasquatch are hardy, more adapted to the cold. They are also few in number, and they hunt and forage over vast distances. They are much like humans in many ways, but much more ancient, and more feral in aspect. They have no need of man's fire, spear or arrow. The humans, even with their primitive tools and fire-building skills, have an increasingly difficult time. Many cannot survive during the high snows and near-arctic cold of winter. Even the hairy
giants, the Ancient Ones, seek the shelter of caves in mid-winter. In this place and time, a most remarkable and significant event takes place.
As the bitter cold of winter deepens, a family of the ancient race travels along a rocky ridge, seeking suitable shelter. The female, a mother of two young juveniles, finds a small cave on the slope. She peers inside and sees the the faint glow of dying embers from a human's fire. She hears the whimper of a small human child, a girl that has been orphaned. Her mother had left only for a moment to look out from the cave in search of her mate, but slipped on the icy surface and fell to her doom. The girl's father also perished in the cold while desperately foraging for food.
The Progenitor mother gently picks up the human child, who is wrapped in a soft deer pelt. The girl is so tiny, so helpless, and so much like her own newborn babes once were. She is moved to compassion for the orphaned waif. Her own children regard the child with curiosity and an almost immediate affection, much as we humans might be endeared to a puppy or kitten. The archaic family adopts and nurtures this young human. There are no other humans of her kind for many leagues in any direction, and also very few of the giant's kind in this region as well. In time, the Ancient Ones become her family; they are all she has ever known since she was adopted. She has little or no memory of her parents. The Progenitors are considerate and kindly, and with them she grows in mutual affection and familial support. In time, as a mature adult, she selects one of the grown offspring as her mate. The two species are are related closely enough that they are genetically compatible, and they in turn have fertile offspring. The human female thus has become the founding matriarch of a new lineage of hominins, a mitochondrial "Eve" for what we now call the Sasquatch.
The matriarchal "Eve" is an exceptional mother, intelligent, resourceful and affectionate. Her children are blessed with the best traits of both their genetic lineages. The father of this new lineage is a skilled hunter and forager, diligent in his efforts for his family's welfare. The small family thrives even in the worst conditions, and in time grows into a mighty clan that will venture out across Europe and cross the steppes of Asia. They follow the herds of fauna across Beringia, the land bridge that connects Siberia with North America in that epoch. Their descendants populate the New World. There they also find other members of their patriarch's ancestral tribe, Ancient Ones that migrated there during the intermittent ice ages, in previous millennia.
This scenario is presented as an introduction to what may be regarded as plausible theory on the origins of the Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot, existing today in North America. "Theory" is not used in a loose or general sense in this essay, as it is based on actual genetic sequencing data, the fundamental interpretation of which has recently been announced as of this writing. The full study, headed by Dr. Melba Ketchum, is soon to be published in a peer reviewed science journal.
The genetic sequencing of over 100 specimens, in mitochondrial and nuclear DNA ranges, including 3 full genome sequencing, is an unprecedented and groundbreaking achievement, and will certainly be one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the 21st century.
The announced findings closely parallel the information that I have independently assembled from many sources, including my own field research. In previous essays, I presented the hypothesis that Sasquatch are a hybrid of modern humans and a progenitor species- archaic hominins, possibly a lineage of what are currently classified as Homo Hiedlebergensis. The Progenitor hypothesis can now be considered a viable theory in that the hard evidence, particularly the sequencing of the Nuclear DNA, which I did not have access to at the time, has now almost unequivocally indicated human/hominin hybridization. I do not know if the exact identification of the archaic hominin, has been established through DNA comparisons. I suggest that further studies compare DNA from the specimens of H. Heidlebergensis specimens of the Atapuerca site, in Spain, if the DNA is recoverable. Fossil skeletal remains of H. Heidelbergensis are those that most closely resemble that of the Sasquatch. (see links to previously published articles in the Resources section below.) Here is an important disclaimer: I have not seen the published study and do not have inside information on the publisher and release date. The assessment of the data may differ significantly from my conclusions presented here; this is my own summary based in part on my own field research, which includes documented footprints, trackways, scat and hair samples, hand-prints, the use of symbols and primitive tools, and various encounters and up-close sightings, as well as genetic sequencing outside of the Ketchum study.
In the press release by Dr. Ketchum, there is mention that the mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from only the females in a lineage, matches DNA of Modern Humans from about 15,000 years ago in South Central Europe. According to my research, this epoch is known as the Franco-Cambrian Ice Age in Europe and also as the Wisconsin Glaciation in North America. The area of Europe, which remained free of glaciers is referred to as the Franco-Cambrian Refuge, because it was a somewhat isolated region where the climate could still support some of the flora and fauna of the northern hemisphere. Humankind in Europe reached a "bottle-neck", a severe reduction of the population to a small percentage of its former numbers, at that time. Under these pressing circumstances, the surviving humans were brought into close contact with the archaic hominins. For a new hybrid lineage to be established, there would necessarily have to be strong familial bonds, which form under the optimal conditions of mutual affection and commitment, such as presented in the proposed scenario above.
The nuclear DNA as reported has sequences that are not shared by currently sequenced hominins or higher primates, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans in the hominins, or gorillas and chimpanzees in the "great apes". Nuclear DNA (nDNA) includes sequences inherited from the males of the lineage. The differences in that nDNA from other primates and known hominins in conjunction with the human mitochondrial DNA is an almost certain indication that what we know as Sasquatch or Bigfoot are primarily a hybrid species, as evidenced in the more than 100 specimens sequenced in the Ketchum study.
There may also be small, scattered populations of archaic hominins still extant that have little or none of the human mitochondrial DNA, that were not represented in the study specimens, both in the Americas and other continents. The Yeti of the Himalayas in particular, may be much closer to the original progenitor species of the paternal lineage. Another possibility to investigate are the Yeren, of China. The Almasty of Russia and Europe are likely closely related to the Sasquatch, though they quite possibly have interbred more with humans. (see the story of Zana listed in the resources section below.)
Another intriguing aspect of the mtDNA sequencing, according to some reports, is that there are some specimens that appear to have sequences shared with some of the most ancient human lineages or haplogroups yet sequenced- similar to that of the Vasikela Kung of South Africa, who speak Khoisan, a language that includes clicks and whistles. (Sasquatch appear to use clicks and whistles to communicate in a similar fashion). If this correlation is correct, and similar data is included in the published study, it may indicate that the Progenitors of the Sasquatch also migrated into the Americas in sporadic waves over several millennia, with some lineages arriving from non-European groups during the earliest Ice Ages.
Additional evidence that could support the study's findings is the filmed high definition footage of Sasquatch, DNA specimens of which are reported to have been included in the Ketchum study. The documentary footage results from the efforts of the Erickson Project, headed by Adrian Erickson. More information can be found at the official site, Sasquatch Quest.
The discovery of a new human/hominin lineage may reveal a genetics "Rosetta Stone" a key to understanding the course of human evolution and the intricate mechanisms of gene expression across subspecies lines. Aspects of the robust genetics of a more ancient or original progenitor may give us insight into the causes and cure of genetic diseases and disorders, and augment gene therapy techniques. Study of the living Sasquatch will yield a wealth of knowledge for anthropologists and open new avenues of inquiry into the origins and nature of Humankind.
RESOURCES:
The Progenitor Hypothesis- Sasquatch as a hybrid species:
http://voices.yahoo.com/bigfoot-dna-report-hypothesis-2011-8786601.html
The Origins of Sasquatch in the Fossil Record:
http://voices.yahoo.com/the-origins-saquatch-bigfoot-as-evidenced-in-10509269.html?cat=58
Analysis of Sasquatch Skeletal Structure:
http://voices.yahoo.com/bigfoot-bones-sasquatch-skeleton-analyzed-compared-10977262.html?cat=58
Sasquatch/Bigfoot Ground Nest, Trackway, Scat:
http://voices.yahoo.com/photos/compelling-evidence-bigfoot-texas-3171342.html?cat=4
Analysis of Cast Sasquatch Handprint:
http://voices.yahoo.com/bigfoot-handprint-discovered-texas-6604970.html?cat=58
Analysis of Sasquatch Tarsal anatomy from Cast Footprint:
http://voices.yahoo.com/i-analyzed-bigfoots-footprint-study-creatures-1377091.html?cat=70
The Story of Zana, a European Alma:
http://voices.yahoo.com/captured-bigfoot-researched-russian-scientists-893181.html?cat=2
Sasquatch Quest website:
http://www.sasquatchthequest.com/
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Giant Skulls
I had three skull size comparisons from different friends on Facebook and so I pasted them together for an overall view. The fisrt skull here is Grover Krantz's reconstruction of the skull of Gigantopithecus: one of my Friends madethe alternative reconstruction shown in three views below. I hope to get a fuller discussion from him later on. torist who feels Bigfoot is Homo erectus and so it shows a really big erectus skull next to a normal-sized Home sapiens skull. I have it here representing Homo heidelbergensis since I feel it shows the degree of variability that is possible within that species. And the last skull is a "Giant skull from a Mound burial" shown at the reported dimensions-ALL of these skulls are being shown at the SAME scale.
My purpose in showing all of these skulls together ot in North America is more likely two types of beings rather than only one type: the population centered on the West Coast (including the Patterson film female) has a smaller cranial capacity and a more pointed head, and the other one more common in North America (and indeed worldwide) is much more human-like but of a lower grade, cruder type human. And the last one shows the original for the "red headed giants": Cromagnon stock but larger than usual, and the later, larger more inbred example accumulating more freakish characters such as extra fingers, toes and teeth (Polydactylity and polydonta). The point being that we have more than one problem and more than one species involved in stories of "Giants" and the ony thing which Giants have in common is their very large size.
 |
| Adena Moundbuilder skulls reported with extra toothrows |
 |
| Double toothrow in mouth of a living man. |
Don Jeff Meldrum is getting a duplicate set of these photos.
Horned skull of Sayre, PA-some mound burials suggest the mound giants could also develop bony growths in the skin forming nodules, and sometimes extra bone deposited on the skulls in the form of horns. It has been suggested that the extra bony growths in the skin were a desirable result of inbreeding because it did provide a degree of natural armour.
Sunday, 7 October 2012
Bigfoot Evidence: possible Origin for Bigfoot
Saturday, October 6, 2012
A Possible Origin of Sasquatch
Editor’s
Note: This is a guest post by David
Batdorf, a Sasquatch enthusiast that is interested in taking an anthropological,
bird's-eye-view of the phenomenon and an advocate for species protection.
Basically, he's a Bigfoot nerd.In my last two posts, Sasquatch: Human vs Ape and The Ambiguous Gigantopithecus, I discussed my opinions, as to the likely origins of Sasquatch. I'd like to discuss the topic further utilizing what is known about protohuman migrations, periodic glaciation and the appearance of land bridges.
I will attempt to build a hypothetical model of the potential origin of the Sasquatch, identify which common ancestor we most likely share, offer suggestions for how they got to North America and when that migration could have occurred.
NOTE: I will focus on the Bering Land Bridge. However, I would like to point out that, similarly, the Sumatran Land Bridge is affected by the same rise and retreat of the oceans, offering access to the islands and in some cases, Australia...
The difference between; "Ice Ages" and "Periods of Glaciation"
Most people refer to the most recent peak of extreme glaciation, as the last "Ice Age". The last glacial maximum or peak, in which, the first modern humans crossed the Bering land bridge, or Beringia, occurred 10,000 - 14,000 years ago. The Current Ice Age, also known as, Pleistocene Glaciation, Quaternary Glaciation or simply, "The Ice Age", has actually been underway for 2.58 million years. During this ice age, there have been several glacial periods and interglacial periods. Glacial peaks, known as a "glacial maximums", occur within glacial periods. Periods of glaciation, their peaks and interglacial periods are calculated by measuring the C02 levels in sediments and rocks, then inferring the amount of ice present and temperature changes.
Glaciers, being comprised of compacted snow, are usually formed on high mountains that collect precipitating clouds against their peaks. They slowly and powerfully flow like rivers to lower elevations, shaping the land as they go. It is this inland entrapment of water, that at times of extreme glaciation is over a mile thick, that leads to decreased sea levels and thus, the emergence of land bridges.
At our most recent glacial maximum, the Beringia land bridge was likely one thousand miles, from North to South, or roughly the distance from Seattle to San Francisco, spanned between Alaska and Siberia and not covered in ice, as many would imagine. It was a lush forest environment, much like the Alaskan and Canadian coastline and interior of today. To many of those who inhabited the region, Beringia would have been a seemingly endless, bountiful refuge as the glaciers encroached from the mountains on either side.
Narrowing the Timeline
Glacial maximums and the extremes to which glaciation occurred have been measured, dated and named, within the last Ice Age. The periods of glaciation, from the most recent to oldest with glacial peaks extreme enough to open the land bridge are: Wisconsin or Wurm; Illinois or Riss; Kansasian or Mindel; and Nebraska or Guns. Prior to Nebraska, at about 1 million years ago, there were no glacial maximums that exceed our current level of ice, today and would likely have left Beringia underwater.
Within each these named periods are multiple glacial peaks or maximums. The third peak of the Wisconsin period is where modern people from Siberia came to America 10,000-14,000 years ago. It spans the shift from the Pleistocene to the Holocene Epoch and is still in recession.
NOTE: Pleistocene Mammalian Gigantism has long been a theory of why Sasquatch is so large. In my hypothetical model, if Sasquatch shares common ancestry with us at an overall maximum of 4.75 million years ago and a first potential crossing at 1 million years ago, this gives Sasquatch 3.75 million years of evolution to adapt to a life in the Northern coniferous forest. More than enough time to do so, if only a fraction of that time. Many of those years could have been spent reacting to pressures of other mammals becoming giants and may have followed suit as a predatory or a defense mechanism. [this is a perfectly acceptable model for Gigantopithecus which fails to apply to the other candidates. Gigantopithecus has been around that long but the others haven't-DD]
Sasquatch, Out of Africa?!
One reason that the Sasquatch' progenitors may have been on the move is due to the Miocene to Pliocene shift that occurred 5.3 million years ago, which began the deforestation and drying out of Africa. This major environmental change began prior to our specialized bipedal adaptations and is thought to have been the catalyst for the end of our progenitor’s arboreal lifestyle, by forcing us into the growing grassland. By the beginning of our Quanternary Glacial period and Pleistocene Epoch, 2.58 million years ago, human progenitors were upright, but still very different from our more modern variants.
There is much evidence that the exodus from Africa may have happened much earlier than was thought, 30-40 years ago. Homo erectus, was one of the first, longest lived and the second-most widespread of our Genus (second, only to our own subspecies of H. sapiens). They were also the first candidate for the widespread, but not complete global population, for a number of reasons. They are found at 1.8 million years ago and survived, at least, to 500,000 years ago. Some say as little as 65,000 - 35,000 years ago.
.....David Batdorf
The author of this article pegs Homo erectus as the most likely candidate for Bigfoot and other "Abominable Snowmen" casres. This is a popular theory and has indeed been a popular theory all along. However there is one problem that this does not address: there is often a difficult line to draw in classification between H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis. ALL of the LATER "H. erectus" fossils might conceivably be H. heidelbergensis insted (that's right, including Pekin Man: Solo man is a probable heidelbergensis and Pekin Man is very similar to the Solo fossils-BOTH sets are much later than H. heidelbergensis had taken over other parts of the Earth, and BOTH are much different than the earlier "Java man." And of course the same exact reasons for excluding Neanderthals and Heidelbergers as candidates could be applied with equal force to exclude erectus as a candidate as well. Homo erectus looks best as an AVERAGE candidate that covers all of the others because you can take more advanced, more manlike reports and average them out with less advanced, less manlike reports to have an overall model that resemvbles erectus, theoreticalluy fit to cover both extremes. However my reading of the evidence is that we do not have an easy situation with a variable median type, we actually do have a situation with highly polarized extremes of more apelike and more humanlike types boion and frustratingly all called by the same names.
And so while the author of this article does have his points, My own reading of the evidence is that his points have not carried the argument and have not shown any decisive advantage for accepting this alternative theory. Furthermore, when the theorist insists on saying we are looking for an erectus type, that immediately invalidates all of the fossil and subfossil finds which agree more with the Heidelberger and Neanderthal types, which consists of quite a few individual specimens over a very large span of time and over large sections of the world, specimens ranging anywhere from Postglacial generally up to very recent indeed. One more example of an "Early man" type skull of geologically recent date from Africa was just published at the Frontiers of Anthropology blog. So, you will excuse me if I continue to believe that such remains constitute much better proof than anything which has been put forth by the opposing theorists.
Best Wishes, Dale D.
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