Pegasus Research Consortium

Paranormal Studies => Cryptozoology - Bigfoot, Monsters and other Critters => Topic started by: zorgon on August 17, 2012, 01:31:28 AM

Title: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 17, 2012, 01:31:28 AM
Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?

This library thread will look at all the good evidence. We will leave it up to the reader to decide the truth of the matter. A separate thread will be made on the Yeti, the Himalayan cousin of Bigfoot, though some of the stories may overlap because most sites consider them the same creature. The material will be in no particular order, being I post them as I find them during searches so I don't lose them again :D

Jeffrey Meldrum

(http://i.huffpost.com/gen/405795/thumbs/s-JEFF-MELDRUM-BIGFOOT-CAST-SM-large300.jpg)

QuoteD. Jeffrey Meldrum (born 1958) is an Associate Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology and Adjunct Associate Professor of the Department of Anthropology at Idaho State University. Meldrum is also Adjunct Professor of Occupational and Physical Therapy and Affiliate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Idaho Museum of Natural History.

Meldrum is an expert on foot morphology and locomotion in primates.

Biography

Meldrum received his B.S. in zoology specializing in vertebrate locomotion at Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1982, his M.S. at BYU in 1984 and a Ph.D. in anatomical sciences, with an emphasis in biological anthropology, from State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1989. He held the position of postdoctoral visiting assistant professor at Duke University Medical Center from 1989 to 1991. Meldrum worked at Northwestern University's Department of Cell, Molecular and Structural Biology for a short while in 1993 before joining the faculty of Idaho State University where he currently teaches.

Meldrum has published several academic papers ranging from vertebrate evolutionary morphology, the emergence of bipedal locomotion in modern humans and Sasquatch and is a co-editor of a series of books on paleontology. Meldrum also coedited From Biped to Strider: The Emergence of Modern Human Walking with Charles E. Hilton. He edited the textbook From Biped to Strider (Springer, 2004)

Meldrum has attracted media attention due to his interest in Bigfoot. Skeptic Brian Dunning writes that "The work of responsible scientists like Dr. Meldrum is exactly what true skeptics should be asking the Bigfoot community for, not criticizing him for it."

Meldrum was present at a 2011 expedition to Siberia to attempt to locate the Yeti. However, despite his belief in the existence of the Yeti, he publicly acknowledged that the results of the Russian expedition were most likely fraudulent. He claimed the supposed evidence found was simply an attempt by local government officials to drum up publicity.

Jeffrey Meldrum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Meldrum)

Bigfoot Anatomy By Marguerite Holloway - Scientific American


(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_271068_huge.jpg)
This still image taken from a 1977 film purports to show Bigfoot in California.

QuoteSasquatch is just a legend, right? According to the evidence, maybe not, argues Jeffrey Meldrum--a position he holds despite ostracism from his fellow anthropologists and university colleagues.

One overcast Sunday morning in 1996, Jeffrey Meldrum and his brother drove to Walla Walla, Wash., to see if they could find Paul Freeman, a man renowned in Bigfoot circles as a source of footprint casts. Meldrum—who has followed Bigfoot lore since he was a boy—had heard that Freeman was a hoaxer, "so I was very dubious," he recalls. The brothers arrived unannounced, Meldrum says, and chatted with Freeman about his collection. Freeman said he had found tracks just that morning, but they were not good, not worth casting. The brothers wanted to see them regardless. "I thought we could use this to study the anatomy of a hoax," Meldrum says. Instead Meldrum's visit to a ridge in the Blue Mountains set him firmly on a quest he has been on since.

Bigfoot Anatomy By Marguerite Holloway - Scientific American  (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bigfoot-anatomy)


Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 17, 2012, 01:49:04 AM
Bigfoot or Bear?

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_297140_huge.jpg)

QuoteBigfoot or bear? Impression left on the driver's side window of a pickup truck owned by Jeffrey Gonzalez. The bizarre image was left by an alleged Bigfoot in California's Sierra National Forest over Memorial Day 2011. DNA samples of the impressions will eventually determine the identity of the animal responsible for them. (See next slide for a close-up of the paw-like impression.)

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_297158_huge.jpg)

QuoteClose-up of the "paw" print image. The impression was reportedly left by Bigfoot on the window of a pickup truck in the California Sierra National Forest over Memorial Day weekend 2011.

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_297160_huge.jpg)

QuoteBigfoot or bear? Pictured is a second impression left on the rear side window of the same truck from the previous slides. According to forensic/law enforcement photographer Mickey Burrow, "What you're seeing is a swipe mark. It looks like a small hand, swiping to the left, leaving another impression, and there's hair within those areas -- you can see where the hair would be."

SOURCE Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/yeti-siberian-snowman-evidence_n_1100497.html#slide=297160)
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 17, 2012, 02:03:15 AM
The Footprints

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_292483_huge.jpg)
This footprint was found over Memorial Day weekend, 2011, near Fresno, Calif. by a group of campers who were on a Bigfoot-hunting expedition. The print, measuring approximately 12 inches, was found near a truck where possible DNA evidence was left behind by more than one Bigfoot creature. SOURCE Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/yeti-siberian-snowman-evidence_n_1100497.html#slide=292483)

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_292469_huge.jpg)
This footprint was found in 2008 in the Sierra National Forest near Fresno, Calif.  SOURCE Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/yeti-siberian-snowman-evidence_n_1100497.html#slide=292469)

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_271017_huge.jpg)
Bill Willard is the leader of a group searching for evidence of a Sasquatch or Bigfoot creature, spotted by, among others, his two sons in Spotsylvania County. He is shown on May 19 in Thornburg, Va., with a plaster cast he made from a suspicious footprint several years ago. SOURCE Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/yeti-siberian-snowman-evidence_n_1100497.html#slide=271065)

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_271067_huge.jpg)
Idaho State University professor Jeffrey Meldrum displays what he said is a cast of a Bigfoot footprint from eastern Washington in September 2006. Some scientists said the school should revoke Meldrum's tenure.Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/yeti-siberian-snowman-evidence_n_1100497.html#slide=271067)

Some scientists said the school should revoke Meldrum's tenure.

THIS is the kind of attitude that makes it IMPOSSIBLE for me to take main stream anthropologists and archaeologists seriously. What utter arrogance and audacity. And this is why many GOOD main stream scientists are afraid to even mention alternative ideas and theories.   >:(

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_271071_huge.jpg)
Ken Gerhard of Houston, Texas, holds a duplicate plaster cast footprint Oct. 15, 2005, at the Texas Bigfoot Conference. The event, hosted by the Texas Bigfoot Research Center, drew enthusiasts and researchers of the legendary creature. Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/yeti-siberian-snowman-evidence_n_1100497.html#slide=271071)

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_271072_huge.jpg)
Josh Gates, host of Syfy TV's "Destination: Truth," holds a plaster cast of what Malaysian ghost hunters said was a Bigfoot footprint in 2006. Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/yeti-siberian-snowman-evidence_n_1100497.html#slide=271072)

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_271073_huge.jpg)
Al Hodgson, a volunteer guide at the Willow Creek-China Flat Musuem in California, holds up a plaster cast of an alleged Bigfoot imprint in 2000. The museum houses a collection of research material donated by the estate of Bob Titmus, who spent his life trying to track the creature Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/yeti-siberian-snowman-evidence_n_1100497.html#slide=271073)
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 17, 2012, 02:11:03 AM
Bigfoot Photos

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_271009_huge.jpg)
Thomas Byers snapped this photo of "Bigfoot" along Golden Valley Church Road in Rutherford County on March 22, 2011. Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/yeti-siberian-snowman-evidence_n_1100497.html#slide=271009)

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_271064_huge.jpg)
This October 2007 image was taken by an automated camera set up by a hunter in a Pennsylvania forest the previous month. Some said it was a Bigfoot creature; others believed it was just a sick bear. Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/yeti-siberian-snowman-evidence_n_1100497.html#slide=271064)

A "sick bear?" Seriously? LOL Being a skeptic is one thing but  "sick bear?"

(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_271020_huge.jpg)
This still frame image from video provided by Bigfoot Global LLC shows what Whitton and Dyer claimed was a Bigfoot or Sasquatch creature in an undisclosed area of a northern Georgia forest in June 2008. Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/yeti-siberian-snowman-evidence_n_1100497.html#slide=271020)


(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22307/slide_22307_271012_huge.jpg)
A film still shows what former rodeo rider Roger Patterson said is the American version of the Abominable Snowman. He said pictures of the creature, estimated at 7 1/2 feet tall, were taken northeast of Eureka, Calif., in October 1967. Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/yeti-siberian-snowman-evidence_n_1100497.html#slide=271012)
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 17, 2012, 02:20:47 AM
Bigfoot

QuoteBigfoot, also known as sasquatch, is the name given to an ape-like creature that cryptozoologists believe inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid. The term sasquatch is an anglicized derivative of the Halkomelem word sásq'ets.

Scientists discount the existence of Bigfoot and consider it to be a combination of folklore, misidentification, and hoax, rather than a living animal, because of the lack of physical evidence and the large numbers of creatures that would be necessary to maintain a breeding population. A few scientists, such as Jane Goodall and Jeffrey Meldrum, have expressed interest and belief in the creature, with Meldrum expressing the opinion that evidence collected of alleged Bigfoot encounters warrants further evaluation and testing.

Bigfoot - Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot)

(http://st-listas.20minutos.es/images/2012-04/326079/3468631_640px.jpg?1333732328) (http://www.marfdrat.net/wp-content/uploads/thumb-cache/accbcdfabf927e7a885094cbbb66f358.jpg)
Frame 352 from the Patterson-Gimlin film, alleged by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin to show a bigfoot, and by some others to show a man in an ape suit.

Patterson-Gimlin film

Quotehe Patterson-Gimlin film (also referred to as simply the Patterson film) is a famous short motion picture of an unidentified subject the film makers purported to be a "Bigfoot", that was supposedly filmed on October 20, 1967, by Roger Patterson (February 14, 1926 – January 15, 1972) and Robert Gimlin (October 18, 1931) on the Klamath River outside of Orleans, California. The film has been subjected to many attempts both to debunk and authenticate it. Skeptics have judged the film a hoax with a man in an ape suit, but theorists contend the film depicts a cryptid, a creature unknown to science.[citation needed]

Both Patterson and Gimlin have consistently dismissed allegations that they had hoaxed the footage by filming a man wearing a costume. Patterson died of cancer in 1972. Patterson's friend and business associate, Gimlin, has always denied being involved in any part of a possible hoax with Patterson and claims that he and his partner had encountered a real Bigfoot. Gimlin avoided publicly discussing the subject from at least the early 1970s until about the year 2000 when he began giving interviews and making

Analysis by many people at the link...

Patterson-Gimlin film - Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson-Gimlin_film)

Bigfoot caught on tape [original patterson footage]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWGYTHK3E30

Patterson Gimlin Bigfoot Film- Bill Munns Analysis

Bill Munns restoration and analysis of the Roger Patterson film footage as seen on National Geographic channel.

(http://planetparadigm.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/patterson_bigfoot_lg1.jpg)

(http://www.texasbigfoot.net/images/bigfoot2.jpg)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKUwdHex1Zs

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HRiGgliTOzc/S4uFV9JTbKI/AAAAAAAAByU/ZK0PkrHwpPE/s1600/Footprint+Casts.jpg)
Footprint casts from the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film creature, in a display set up by Cliff Barackman. Photo by Steven Streufert, 2007.

(http://www.hancockhouse.com/products/product_images//BigSas1.jpg)

(http://s2.jrnl.ie/media/2012/08/roger-patterson-320x500.jpg)
Roger Patterson

(http://www.richardgrigonis.com/p7lsm_img_12/fullsize/Roger_Patterson_Bigfoot_Cast_Web_fs.jpg)
The above is one of the casts taken by Patterson/Gimlin after filming the creature. Notice that Patterson is using his own foot to mimic the gripping posture of the toes as seen in the cast. Even human beings who go barefoot all day for a long enough period develop a naturally strong grip to their toes and leave distinctly different footprints when barefoot than a person who wears shoes all the time. I've seen this myself comparing my own barefootprints to those of hippies who have been shoeless most of their life. A shoe-wearers feet spread out when barefoot and their toes are longer and have less tensile grip... the bigfoot's foot is so thick soled and dense with muscle that there toes are naturally 'clubbed' somewhat, and I am assuming that's why pattersons soles aren't easy to define toes on? - Source (http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=106918)
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 17, 2012, 02:48:00 AM
Bigfoot History

(http://www.museumoftheweird.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/HohRainForest.jpg)

Description

QuoteBigfoot is described in reports as a large hairy ape-like creature, in a range of 6–10 feet (2–3 m) tall, weighing in excess of 500 pounds (230 kg), and covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair. Alleged witnesses have described large eyes, a pronounced brow ridge, and a large, low-set forehead; the top of the head has been described as rounded and crested, similar to the sagittal crest of the male gorilla. Bigfoot is commonly reported to have a strong, unpleasant smell by those who claim to have encountered it. The enormous footprints for which it is named have been as large as 24 inches (60 cm) long and 8 inches (20 cm) wide. While most casts have five toes — like all known apes — some casts of alleged bigfoot tracks have had numbers ranging from two to six.[11] Some have also contained claw marks, making it likely that a portion came from known animals such as bears, which have five toes and claws. Some proponents have also claimed that bigfoot is omnivorous and mainly nocturnal.

(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d150/AVCN/real_x_fake1.jpg)

History
Before 1958


QuoteWildmen stories are found among the indigenous population of the Pacific Northwest. The legends existed prior to a single name for the creature. They differed in their details both regionally and between families in the same community. Similar stories of wildmen are found on every continent except Antarctica. Ecologist Robert Michael Pyle argues that most cultures have human-like giants in their folk history: "We have this need for some larger-than-life creature."

Members of the Lummi tell tales about Ts'emekwes, the local version of bigfoot. The stories are similar to each other in terms of the general descriptions of Ts'emekwes, but details about the creature's diet and activities differed between the stories of different families.

Some regional versions contained more nefarious creatures. The stiyaha or kwi-kwiyai were a nocturnal race that children were told not to say the names of lest the monsters hear and come to carry off a person—sometimes to be killed. In 1847, Paul Kane reported stories by the native people about skoocooms: a race of cannibalistic wild men living on the peak of Mount St. Helens. The skoocooms appear to have been regarded as supernatural, rather than natural.

Less menacing versions such as the one recorded by Reverend Elkanah Walker exist. In 1840, Walker, a Protestant missionary, recorded stories of giants among the Native Americans living in Spokane, Washington. The Indians claimed that these giants lived on and around the peaks of nearby mountains and stole salmon from the fishermen's nets.

Various local legends were compiled by J. W. Burns in a series of Canadian newspaper articles in the 1920s. Each language had its own name for the local version. Many names meant something along the lines of "wild man" or "hairy man" although other names described common actions it was said to perform (e.g. eating clams). Burns coined the term Sasquatch, which is from the Halkomelem sásq'ets (IPA: [?sæsq??ts]), and used it in his articles to describe a hypothetical single type of creature reflected in these various stories. Burns's articles popularized both the legend and its new name, making it well known in western Canada before it gained popularity in the United States.

Frontiersman Daniel Boone reported having shot and killed "a ten-foot, hairy giant he called a Yahoo." Folktale scholar Hugh H. Trotti has argued that Boone's account may have been the inspiration for some of the Bigfoot stories told in North America.[23]

(http://penn.freeservers.com/bigfootmaps/BFSightingsNAT8.jpg)
Overview Map of North American Bigfoot Sightings as reported by selected bigfoot research organization web sites Maps compiled using DeLorme Topo USA® and Google Earth®

After 1958

QuoteIn 1951, Eric Shipton had photographed what he described as a Yeti footprint. This photograph generated considerable attention and the story of the Yeti entered into popular consciousness. The notoriety of ape-men grew over the decade, culminating in 1958 when large footprints were found in Del Norte County, California, by bulldozer operator Gerald Crew. Sets of large tracks appeared multiple times around a road-construction site in Bluff Creek. After not being taken seriously about what he was seeing, Crew brought in his friend, Bob Titmus, to cast the prints in plaster. The story was published in the Humboldt Times along with a photo of Crew holding one of the casts. Locals had been calling the unseen track-maker "Big Foot" since the late summer, which Humboldt Times columnist Andrew Genzoli shortened to "Bigfoot" in his article. Bigfoot gained international attention when the story was picked up by the Associated Press. Following the death of Ray Wallace – a local logger – his family attributed the creation of the footprints to him. The wife of Scoop Beal, the editor of the Humboldt Standard, which later combined with the Humboldt Times, in which Genzoli's story had appeared,[26] has stated that her husband was in on the hoax with Wallace.

1958 was a watershed year not just for the bigfoot story itself but also for the culture that surrounds it. The first bigfoot hunters began following the discovery of footprints at Bluff Creek, California. Within a year, Tom Slick, who had funded searches for Yeti in the Himalayas earlier in the decade, organized searches for bigfoot in the area around Bluff Creek.

As Bigfoot has become better known and a phenomenon in popular culture, sightings have spread throughout North America. In addition to the Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes region and the Southeastern United States have had many reports of Bigfoot sightings.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/Bigfoot_Sightings_in_USA.png/590px-Bigfoot_Sightings_in_USA.png)
Sightings of Bigfoot in USA based on information from the BFRO Geographical Database of Bigfoot/Sasquatch Sightings & Reports -8 September 2008

(http://208.109.31.181/images/bionics_v1_1213.jpg) (http://208.109.31.181/)
Founded in 1995 -- The only scientific research organization exploring the bigfoot/sasquatch mystery.
Contact us at ContactUs@BFRO.NET or Phone (408) 634-BFRO [408-634-2376]


Prominent reported sightings

QuoteAbout a third of all reports of Bigfoot sightings are concentrated in the Pacific Northwest, with most of the remaining reports spread throughout the rest of North America. Some Bigfoot advocates, such as cryptozoologist John Willison Green, have postulated that Bigfoot is a worldwide phenomenon. The most notable reports include:

1924:
Prospector Albert Ostman claimed to have been abducted by Sasquatch and held captive by the creatures in British Columbia.

1924:
Fred Beck claimed that he and four other miners were attacked one night in July 1924, by several "apemen" throwing rocks at their cabin in an area later called Ape Canyon, Washington. Beck said the miners shot and possibly killed at least one of the creatures, precipitating an attack on their cabin, during which the creatures bombarded the cabin with rocks and tried to break in. The supposed incident was widely reported at the time. Beck wrote a book about the alleged event in 1967, in which he argued that the creatures were mystical beings from another dimension, claiming that he had experienced psychic premonitions and visions his entire life of which the apemen were only one component. Speleologist William Halliday argued in 1983 that the story arose from an incident in which hikers from a nearby camp had thrown rocks into the canyon. There are also local rumors that pranksters harassed the men and planted faked footprints.[12]

1941:
Jeannie Chapman and her children said they had escaped their home when a 7.5 feet (2.3 m) tall Sasquatch approached their residence in Ruby Creek, British Columbia.

1958:
Bulldozer operator Jerry Crew took to a newspaper office a cast of one of the enormous footprints he and other workers had seen at an isolated work site at Bluff Creek, California. The crew was overseen by Wilbur L. Wallace, brother of Raymond L. Wallace. After Ray Wallace's death, his children came forward with a pair of 16-inch (41 cm) wooden feet, which they said their father had used to fake the Bigfoot tracks in 1958. Wallace is poorly regarded by many Bigfoot proponents. John Napier wrote, "I do not feel impressed with Mr. Wallace's story" regarding having over 15,000 feet (4,600 m) of film showing Bigfoot.

1967:
Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin reported that on October 20 they had captured a purported Sasquatch on film at Bluff Creek, California. This came to be known as the Patterson-Gimlin film. Many years later, Bob Heironimus, an acquaintance of Patterson's, said that he had worn an ape costume for the making of the film.

2007:
On September 16, 2007, hunter Rick Jacobs captured an image of a supposed Sasquatch by using an automatically triggered camera attached to a tree, prompting a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Game Commission to say that it was likely an image of "a bear with a severe case of mange." The photo was taken near the town of Ridgway, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny National Forest.

Bigfoot - Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot)


Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 17, 2012, 03:53:00 AM
Bigfoot - Known Misidentifications and Hoaxes

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/63/Croped_BFRO_image.jpg)
This is an image from a Bushnell trail camera taken on the evening of September 16, 2007, claimed to depict Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Colton.
Source: Deer hunter Rick Jacobs of Elk County, Pennsylvania took this image at the Allegheny National Forest in Northwest Pennsylvania while attempting to photograph deer for the upcoming fall hunting season. (Cropped version, as much as is needed)


Proposed explanations for sightings

QuoteVarious types of creatures have been suggested to explain both the sightings and what type of creature Bigfoot would be if it existed. The scientific community typically attributes sightings to either hoaxes or misidentification of known animals and their tracks. While cryptozoologists generally explain Bigfoot as an unknown ape, some believers in Bigfoot attribute the phenomenon to UFOs or other paranormal causes. A minority of proponents of a natural explanation have attributed Bigfoot to animals that are not apes such as the giant ground sloth.

Misidentification

QuoteIn 2007, the Pennsylvania Game Commission said that photos the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization claimed showed a juvenile Bigfoot were most likely of a bear with mange. Jeffrey Meldrum, on the other hand, said the limb proportions of the suspected juvenile in question were not bear-like, and stated that he felt they were "more like a chimpanzee."

Hoaxes

QuoteBoth scientists and Bigfoot believers agree that many of the sightings are hoaxes or misidentified animals.

Bigfoot sightings or footprints are often demonstrably hoaxes. Author Jerome Clark argues that the Jacko Affair, involving an 1884 newspaper report of an apelike creature captured in British Columbia, was a hoax. Citing research by John Green, who found that several contemporary British Columbia newspapers regarded the alleged capture as very dubious, Clark notes that the Mainland Guardian of New Westminster, British Columbia, wrote, "Absurdity is written on the face of it."

On July 14, 2005, Tom Biscardi, a long-time Bigfoot enthusiast and CEO of Searching for Bigfoot Inc., appeared on the Coast to Coast AM paranormal radio show and announced that he was "98% sure that his group will be able to capture a Bigfoot which they have been tracking in the Happy Camp, California area." A month later, Biscardi announced on the same radio show that he had access to a captured Bigfoot and was arranging a pay-per-view event for people to see it. Biscardi appeared on Coast to Coast AM again a few days later to announce that there was no captive Bigfoot. Biscardi blamed an unnamed woman for misleading him, and the show's audience for being gullible.

On July 9, 2008, Rick Dyer and Matthew Whitton posted a video to YouTube claiming that they had discovered the body of a dead Sasquatch in a forest in northern Georgia. Tom Biscardi was contacted to investigate. Dyer and Whitton received $50,000 from Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., as a good faith gesture. The story of the men's claims was covered by many major news networks, including BBC, CNN, ABC News, and Fox News. Soon after a press conference, the alleged Bigfoot body arrived in a block of ice in a freezer with the Searching for Bigfoot team. When the contents were thawed, it was discovered that the hair was not real, the head was hollow, and the feet were rubber. Dyer and Whitton subsequently admitted it was a hoax after being confronted by Steve Kulls, executive director of Squatchdetective.com.

Gigantopithecus

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Gigantopithecus_blacki_mandible_010112.jpg/549px-Gigantopithecus_blacki_mandible_010112.jpg) (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Gigantopithecus_blacki_mandible_010112.jpg)
Fossil jaw of Gigantopithecus blacki, an extinct primate - Click for full size

QuoteBigfoot proponents Grover Krantz and Geoffrey Bourne believe that Bigfoot could be a relict population of Gigantopithecus. Bourne contends that as most Gigantopithecus fossils are found in China, and as many species of animals migrated across the Bering land bridge, it is not unreasonable to assume that Gigantopithecus might have as well.

The Gigantopithecus hypothesis is generally considered entirely speculative. Gigantopithecus fossils are not found in the Americas. As the only recovered fossils are of mandibles and teeth, there is some uncertainty about Gigantopithecus's locomotion. Krantz has argued, based on his extrapolation of the shape of its mandible, that Gigantopithecus blacki could have been bipedal. However, the relevant part of mandible is not present in any fossils. The mainstream view is that Gigantopithecus was quadrupedal, and it has been argued that Gigantopithecus's enormous mass would have made it difficult for it to adopt a bipedal gait.

Matt Cartmill presents another problem with the Gigantopithecus hypothesis: "The trouble with this account is that Gigantopithecus was not a hominin and maybe not even a crown-group hominoid; yet the physical evidence implies that Bigfoot is an upright biped with buttocks and a long, stout, permanently adducted hallux. These are hominin autapomorphies, not found in other mammals or other bipeds. It seems unlikely that Gigantopithecus would have evolved these uniquely hominin traits in parallel."

Bernard G. Campbellin wrote: "That Gigantopithecus is in fact extinct has been questioned by those who believe it survives as the Yeti of the Himalayas and the Sasquatch of the north-west American coast. But the evidence for these creatures is not convincing."

Extinct hominidae

QuoteA species of Paranthropus, such as Paranthropus robustus, with its crested skull and bipedal gait, was suggested by primatologist John Napier and anthropologist Gordon Strasenburg as a possible candidate for Bigfoot's identity, despite the fact that fossils of Paranthropus are found only in Africa.

Michael Rugg, of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum, presented a comparison between human, Gigantopithecus and Meganthropus skulls (reconstructions made by Grover Krantz) in episodes 131 and 132 of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum Show. He favorably compares a modern tooth suspected of coming from a bigfoot to the Meganthropus fossil teeth, noting the worn enamel on the occlusal surface. The Meganthropus fossils originated from Asia, the tooth was found in the Pacific Northwest.

Some suggest Neanderthal, Homo erectus, or Homo heidelbergensis to be the creature, but no remains of any of those species have been found in the Americas.

Interdimensional being

QuoteOne fringe theory, supported by paranormal investigator Jon-Erik B

Bigfoot - Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot)
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 17, 2012, 04:04:22 AM
Jon-Erik Beckjord

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Jon-Erik_Beckjord.jpg/455px-Jon-Erik_Beckjord.jpg)
Jon-Erik Beckjord. 17 June 2006 by Matt Crowley

QuoteJon-Erik Beckjord (April 26, 1939 – June 22, 2008) was a San Francisco-based paranormal investigator and photographer known for his far-reaching ideas regarding such phenomena as UFOs, crop circles, the Loch Ness Monster, and his specialty, Bigfoot, which he believed to be an extradimensional ghost-like entity that lives in mountains, forests, and even farmers' fields. Because of his speculation that creatures such as the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot may be interdimensional aliens, he was considered a fringe theorist, not only by skeptics, but also by the vast majority of his fellow cryptozoologists

Career

QuoteBorn Cedric Jon Beckjord in Duluth, Minnesota, Beckjord attended the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado for two years. He then moved on to Tulane University, where he graduated with honors in sociology in 1961. He studied law for one year at Boalt Hall at University of California, Berkeley, and later received an MBA from U.C. Berkeley in 1966. He has appeared on several nationwide radio and television shows, such as Coast to Coast AM and Good Morning America, as well as Late Night with David Letterman. He claims that he captured the Loch Ness Monster on film in 1983; this film aired on the BBC and on NBC in 1987. Beckjord briefly owned three UFO/Bigfoot/Nessie museums in Los Angeles, Malibu, and San Francisco.

Assertions and theories

QuoteBeckjord himself characterized his theories as being "no more bizarre than those of Einstein, Dr. Michio Kaku or Dr. Fred Alan Wolf," and considers many to be continuations or expansions upon Einstein's work.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Cheshire_Cat_Tenniel.jpg)
The Cheshire Cat from Carroll's Alice in Wonderland is a figure Beckjord has used for illustrating his ideas regarding Bigfoot.

Beckjord believed that Bigfoot and similar cryptids may be "inter-dimensional" beings that can occasionally take physical form for brief periods of time, but that, like the famed Cheshire cat, can "fade out" and pass through "wormholes", possibly to other dimensions or parallel universes. He reported having had one of the creatures speak to him using telepathy, communicating the words "We're here, but we're not real, like what you think is real". Beckjord claimed that such entities may be able to actually disappear into thin air, or even shapeshift. "He disappeared right in front of me", he replied to one poster on his message board. He noted that other persons have had this also happen to them (see The Locals by Thom Powell, 2004).

Beckjord maintained that the interdimensional hypothesis may possibly, if proven, explain why there are thousands of alleged Bigfoot creature sightings each year, yet no dead zoological physical body is ever found. To evidence these ideas, Beckjord accumulated a large collection of enlarged photographs that he says show, among other things, "half-Bigfoots" and "invisible Bigfoots", or possible aliens. The forms are often found in situations where the camera picked up images not seen by the witnesses, often due to distance. According to Beckjord, the images show primates, carnivores and beings not readily identified within known zoological classifications that resemble descriptions of aliens submitted to investigators. He conducted much field work, such as camping out at "window sites" where, he said, Bigfoot activity is frequently seen. From 1978–1981, he collected his own photographic evidence of what he believes to be a "tribe" of either Bigfoots or aliens at El Dorado National Forest.

Beckjord's strong beliefs about Bigfoot and similar entities brought him into conflict not only with skeptics, who consider Bigfoot sightings to be a cultural phenomenon purely resulting from wishful thinking or hoaxes, but also with those who believe Bigfoot to be an actual physical creature. CNN correspondent Rusty Dornin wrote in 1997 "if it's far-fetched and unproved, Beckjord buys it."

Death

QuoteBeckjord died at the age of 69 from prostate cancer on June 22, 2008, near his home in Lafayette, California. He had been maintaining the Crosses of Lafayette monument to casualties of the Iraq War before his death

Jon-Erik Beckjord - Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Beckjord#Assertions_and_theories)

David J. Daegling. Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend. (http://books.google.com/books?id=G3z5VVbGfbgC&pg=PA197&dq=%22jon-erik+beckjord%22&hl=en&ei=TtttttorTc_xHoK9nAevq62pDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22jon-erik%20beckjord%22&f=false) Rowman Altamira, 2004. 197.

Paranormal believer Erik Beckjord dies at 69 (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Paranormal-believer-Erik-Beckjord-dies-at-69-3275645.php)







NOTE: Jon-Erik Beckjord's Film

He claims that he captured the Loch Ness Monster on film in 1983; this film aired on the BBC and on NBC in 1987.  Beckjord briefly owned three UFO/Bigfoot/Nessie museums in Los Angeles, Malibu, and San Francisco.  The Loch Ness Monster (http://web.archive.org/web/20080516151908rn_1/www.beckjord.com/nessie/) at www.beckjord.com.

To date all traces of that film are gone... hopefully someone out there can help find it. Since his death his website is gone and so are all active links and there is no record at the wayback machine

Help finding this for the Loch Ness section would be appreciated
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 17, 2012, 04:21:07 AM
EVALUATION OF ALLEGED SASQUATCH FOOTPRINTS
AND THEIR INFERRED FUNCTIONAL MORPHOLOGY


D. JEFFREY MELDRUM, Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University

Reprinted by Permission
D. JEFFREY MELDRUM, Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University (http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/fxnlmorph.html)

Introduction

Throughout the twentieth century, thousands of eyewitness reports of giant bipedal apes, commonly referred to as Bigfoot or Sasquatch, have emanated from the montane forests of the western United States and Canada. Hundreds of large humanoid footprints have been discovered and many have been photographed or preserved as plaster casts. As incredulous as these reports may seem, the simple fact of the matter remains -- the footprints exist and warrant evaluation. A sample of over 100 footprint casts and over 50 photographs of footprints and casts was assembled and examined, as well as several examples of fresh footprints.

Tracks in the Blue Mountains

The author examined fresh footprints first-hand in 1996, near the Umatilla National Forest, outside Walla Walla, Washington. The isolated trackway comprised in excess of 40 discernible footprints on a muddy farm road, across a plowed field, and along an irrigation ditch. The footprints measured approximately 35 cm (13.75 in) long and 13 cm (5.25 in) wide. Step length ranged from 1.0 - 1.3 m. Limited examples of faint dermatoglyphics were apparent, but deteriorated rapidly under the wet weather conditions. Individual footprints exhibited variations in toe position that were consistent with inferred walking speed and accommodation of irregularities in the substrate. A flat foot was indicated with an elongated heel segment. Seven individual footprints were preserved as casts.

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/002_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/003_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/004_1.jpg)

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/005_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/006_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/007_1.jpg)

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/008_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/009_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/010_1.jpg)

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/011_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/012_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/013_1.jpg)

For larger view visit the site and click on the images - [Images Archived]

Evidence of a Midtarsal Break

Perhaps the most significant observation relating to this trackway was the evidence of a pronounced flexibility in the midtarsal joint. Several examples of midfoot pressure ridges indicate a greater range of flexion at the transverse tarsal joint than permitted in the normal human tarsus. This is especially manifest in the footprint figured below, in which a heel impression is absent. Evidently, the hindfoot was elevated at the time of contact by the midfoot. Due to the muddy conditions, the foot slipped backward, as indicated by the toe slide-ins, and a ridge of mud was pushed up behind the midtarsal region.

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/014_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/015_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/016_1.jpg)

Patterson-Gimlin Film Subject

In October 1967, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin claimed to have captured on film a female Bigfoot retreating across a loamy sandbar on Bluff Creek, in northern California. The film provides a view of the plantar surface of the subject's foot, as well as several unobstructed views of step cycles. In addition to a prominent elongated heel, a midtarsal break is apparent during midstance and considerable flexion of the midtarsus can be seen during the swing phase. The subject left a long series of deeply impressed footprints. Patterson cast single examples of a right and a left footprint. The next day the site was visited by Robert Laverty, a timber management assistant and his sales crew. He took several photographs including one of a footprint exhibiting a pronounced pressure ridge in the midtarsal region. This same footprint, along with nine others in a series, was cast two weeks later by Bob Titmus, a Canadian taxidermist. A model of inferred skeletal anatomy is proposed here to account for the distinctive midtarsal pressure ridge and "half-tracks" in which the heel impression is absent. In this model the Sasquatch foot lacks a fixed longitudinal arch, but instead exhibits a high degree of midfoot flexibility at the transverse tarsal joint. Following the midtarsal break, a plastic substrate may be pushed up in a pressure ridge as propulsive force is exerted through the midfoot. An increased power arm in the foot lever system is achieved by heel elongation as opposed to arch fixation.

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/017_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/018.jpg)
Photo credit: Roger Patterson ---   Photo credit: Lyle Laverty

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/019.jpg)

Noteworthy is the documentation of the tracks of this same individual on a number of earlier occasions. One of the first of these was photographed by Peter Byrne near Bluff Creek in 1960. Two others were cast by Al Hodgson, of Willow Creek, one on a logging road near Notice Creek in 1962(?) and another on Bluff Creek in 1963. Another instance was photographed extensively by John Green and Rene' Dahinden on the Blue Creek Mountain Road in 1967, just over one month before the Patterson-Gimlin film was shot.

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/020_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/021_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/022_1.jpg)
Photo credit: Peter Byrne

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/023_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/024_1.jpg)
Photo credit: John Green

Additional Examples of "Half-Tracks"

A number of additional examples of footprints have been identified that exhibit a midtarsal break, either as a pronounced midtarsal pressure ridge or as a "half-track" produced by a foot flexed at the transverse tarsal joint . Each of these examples conforms to the predicted relative position of the transverse tarsal joint and elongated heel. The first example is documented by a set of photographs taken by Don Abbott, an anthropologist from the British Columbia Museum, in August 1967. These footprints were part of an extended trackway, comprising over a thousand footprints, along Blue Creek Mountain Road, in northern California.

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/025_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/026_1.jpg)

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/027_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/028.jpg)
Photo credit: Dan Abbott

Deputy Sheriff Denny Hereford was one of several officers investigating footprints found by loggers on the Satsop River, in Grays Harbor County, Washington, in April 1982. The subject strode from the forest across a logging landing, then doubling its stride, left a series of half-tracks on its return to the treeline. Note the indications of the fifth metatarsal and calcaneocuboid joint on the lateral margin of the cast. The proximal margin of the half-track approximates the position of the calcaneocuboid joint.

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/029_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/030_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/031.jpg)

Example of Foot Pathology

The track of an individual with a presumed cripple foot was discovered in Bossburg, Washington in 1969. The malformed right foot has been previously misidentified as a case of talipes equinoverus (clubfoot). However, it is consistent with the general condition of pes cavus, specifically metatarsus adductus or possibly skewfoot. Its unilateral manifestation makes it more likely that the individual was suffering from a lesion on the spinal cord rather than a congenital deformity. Regardless of the epidemiology, the pathology highlights the evident distinctions of skeletal anatomy. The prominent bunnionettes on the lateral margin of the foot mark the positions of the calcaneocuboid and cuboideometatarsal joints, which are positioned more distal than in a human foot. This accords with the inferred position of the transverse tarsal joint and confirms the elongation of the heel segment. Furthermore, deformities and malalignments of the digits permit inferences about the positions of interphalangeal joints and relative toe lengths, as depicted in the reconstructed skeletal anatomy depicted below.

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/032_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/033.jpg)

Relative Toe Length and Mobility

Variations in toe position are evident between footprints within a single trackway, as well as between individual subjects. In some instances the toes are sharply curled, leaving an undisturbed ridge of soil behind toe tips resembling "peas-in-a-pod." In other instances the toes are fully extended. In either case, the toes appear relatively longer than in humans. Among the casts made by the author in 1996 is one in which the toes were splayed, pressing the first and fifth digits into the sidewalls of the deep imprint, leaving an impression of the profile of these marginal toes. This is the first such case that I am aware of. Expressed as a percent of the combined hindfoot/midfoot, the Sasquatch toes are intermediate in length between those of humans and the reconstructed length of australopithecine toes. Furthermore, the digits frequently display a considerable range of abduction.

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/034_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/035_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/036_1.jpg)

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/037_1.jpg)(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/038_1.jpg)

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/039.jpg)

Compliant Gait

The dynamic signature of the footprints concurs with numerous eyewitness accounts noting the smoothness of the gait exhibited by the Sasquatch. For example, one witness stated, "...it seemed to glide or float as it moved." Absent is the vertical oscillation of the typical stiff-legged human gait. The compliant gait not only reduces peak ground reaction forces, but also avoids concentration of weight over the heel and ball, as well as increases the period of double support.

(http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/jpg/040.jpg)
Photo credit: Roger Patterson

Conclusions

Human walking is characterized by an extended stiff-legged striding gait with distinct heel-strike and toe-off phases. Bending stresses in the digits are held low by selection for relatively short toes that participate in propulsion at the sacrifice of prehension. Efficiency and economy of muscle action during distance walking and running are maximized by reduced mobility in the tarsal joints, a fixed longitudinal arch, elastic storage in the well developed calcaneal tendon, plantar aponeurosis and deep plantar ligaments of the foot.

In contrast, the Sasquatch appear to have adapted to bipedal locomotion by employing a compliant gait on a flat flexible foot. A degree of prehensile capability has been retained in the digits by maintaining the uncoupling of the propulsive function of the hindoot from the forefoot via the midtarsal break. Digits are spared the peak forces of toe-off due to the compliant gait with its extended period of double support. This would be a efficient strategy for negotiating the steep, broken terrain of the dense montane forests of the Pacific and Intermountain West, especially for a bipedal hominoid of considerable body mass, The dynamic signatures of this adaptive pattern of gait are generally evident in the footprints examined in this study.


D. JEFFREY MELDRUM, Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University (http://www.isu.edu/~meldd/fxnlmorph.html)
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 12:48:45 AM
(http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2007/bigfoot16large.jpg)

QuoteThis Bigfoot picture were taken in 2002, near Delroy, Ohio. This Bigfoot hunt scared us to death! My sons and I were charged, and rocks were thrown at us from this very bigfoot in the pictures above.

The bigfoot appeared very frightened and annoyed that we were following her. We believe this to have been a female, perhaps protecting its young.

After the photographs, we felt it best to leave the area, due to its aggressiveness.

(http://ourbigfoot.com/sitebuilder/images/bigfoot_picture_behind_tree_012-584x408.jpg)

(http://ourbigfoot.com/sitebuilder/images/bigfoot_picture_behind_tree_0111-276x362.jpg)

(http://ourbigfoot.com/sitebuilder/images/bigfoot_picture_behind_tree_0122-300x428.jpg)

Bigfoot Pictures - 2002
Bigfoot picture (as he peeks out from behind a tree) near Delroy, Ohio. (http://ourbigfoot.com/bigfoot_pictures_bigfoot_enlarged_tree_picture.html)

Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 12:53:02 AM
(http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2007/bigfoot1977.jpg)

QuoteThis is a 1977 still photo made from a 16mm film made by Ivan Marx reportedly showing the legendary Big Foot cavorting in the hills of northern California.

source: http://www.livescience.com/






(http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2007/moyiesprings.jpg)

QuoteThis photo was taken with a hidden camera at Moyie Springs, Northern Idaho. The owner of property noticed foot tracks some weeks earlier and set camera up in tree along path of tracks. This picture was taken from that camera mounted in the tree.

It seems that the Bigfoot took a bite of the red fir tree bark.

In the original that I have you can clearly see a piece of bark in the air. I circled the bark in the photo.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page931.html?theme=light






(http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2007/bigfoot9large.jpg)

QuoteThis photo was taken in 1997 by a fire fighter captain on the edge of the Florida Everglades. This Bigfoot relative is known as the Skunkape in the Florida area.

The Skunkape has been sighted numerous times and there have also been footprints found and cast. It gets it's nickname from the powerful stench that often accompanies it. Reported sightings of this creature go back 30 years.

source: http://theshadowlands.net/bf.htm

Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 12:55:51 AM
The Controversial Discovery of de Loys Ape

(http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2011/deloysape.jpg)

Louis Francois Fernand Hector de Loys, (1892-1935) was a Swiss geologist pioneer of the young science of oil fields prospecting. He travelled extensively and collected experience in Europe, Africa and America during the golden age of oil exploration. Unfortunately, de Loys is less known for his geological achievements than for a strange story about a strange photograph.

In 1920, a handful of exhausted men reached the bank of the Tarra River, a tributary of the Rio Catatumbo in the borderlands of Venezuela and Colombia. They were all what remained of a group of 20 prospectors of the Netherland oil company "Colon Development", which had ventured in the Sierra de Perije?, a range of mountains, in 1917.

In charge of the expedition, de Loy intended to geologically map and study the region for a planned exploitation of the suspected oil reserves.

The area was not only a dangerous jungle infested with tropical beasts of prey, parasites and diseases, but also inhabited by the hostile Motilones Indians. They decimated one after another of the members of the expedition. It seemed already that the expedition was a failure, but in the last part a strange encounter occurred.

One day de Loys spotted at the shores of the Rio Tarra, two large, bipedal monkeys covered with reddish fur and without tails. The two threatening animals walked upright and begun to approach the expedition, visibly irritated, shouting, brandishing with the arms and finally defecating in their own hands and using the excrements as projectiles against the expedition. Finally the frightened men decided to respond to the attack, so they shot in direction of the two apes and killed was seemed a female, meanwhile the male escaped in the jungle.

Since de Loys and his people had never seen such large monkeys, he tried to preserve the skull and take various photos of the body. However, soon the skull begun to decay and during a trip on the river the boat capsized and most of the photos of the animal were lost.

When de Loys finally returned home with the only remaining evidence, a single photography which he treasured in his notebook, he forgot about his annoying encounter with the unknown monkeys. Only years later a friend, the Swiss anthropologist George Alexis Montandon (1879-1944), accidentally rediscovered the photo.

Considering the supposed dimension of the box (45-50cm high) visible in the photography the height of the animal was estimated to range from 150 to 160cm. This seemed to confirm the measurements by Loys (157cm). Based on the dimension and the unusual human-like characteristics, especially the missing tail, in 1929 Montandon published a detailed description of the ape, which he considered a genuine species named "Ameranthropoides loysi", de Loys' American human-like ape.

The animal in the photograph displays characteristics that are not found in the monkeys of the new world, like the upright posture, the absence of a tail and 32 teeth (after the description of de Loys).

Montandon was fascinated from this sensational discovery of a supposed unknown ape species and began to collect anecdotes and legends of great apes present in remote places of South America not specifically the region of the supposed encounter.

In two stone statues of the Maya period large, 1,5m high apelike figures are pictured. Among the tribe of the "Caribi" of Guyana there is a widespread belief in the "kanaima", demons which roam the jungle armed with clubs, assaulting whoever dares to enter their reign. In Colombia these creatures are called "didi" and described as half man and half monkey. In Brazil and Venezuela there are legends of the "vastiri".

In the book "Natural History of Guiana", published by Dr. Edward Bancroft in 1769, there is a description of an encounter with a creature like an "orang-utan", and naturalist George Edwards in "A study of anthropoid life" (1757) depicts a strange ape-like creature resembling the modern photograph.

However, this publication of Ameranthropoides became accepted only by the French scientific establishment. In contrast it aroused a violent controversy by scientists from Great Britain and North America. The eminent English naturalist Sir Arthur Keith for example, affirmed that the photo showed only a species of spider monkey - Ateles Belzebuth native in the region- with the tail deliberately cut off or hidden in the photograph.

The simplest explanation, the possibility that the photo was a fraud, was refused on base of the good reputation of De Loys:

"It is sure that Francois de Loys was a man of strict science and responsibility, optimistic and friendly and featuring an intrepid spirit of adventure. It seems unlikely that such a scientist may have perpetuated the fraud of the Ameranthropoides only to gain fame. There are sufficient reasons to affirm that de Loys was not a liar, especially one unimpeachable document as the original photo taken at a time when photography and image manipulation did not exist at all."

This statement is surely too optimistic. Photo manipulation is as old as the art of photography and the dimension or characteristics of the animal in many cropped versions of the photography can not be compared to other objects apart from the strange box.

De Loys himself was very reluctant promoting the story, in the official publication of 1929 by De Loys himself about the geological expedition there is no mention of the creature or subsequent research, he published only, hustled by Montadon, an article in the Illustrated London News.

In 1998 Pierre Centlivres and Isabelle Girod finally published an article suggesting that the entire story was an idea by anthropologist Montandon.

If the myths and rumours of large ape-like creature in South America have a zoological explanation, the photo of de Loys surely has nothing to do with them.

Despite his role in the prank, (he contributed the photo and the story and later never resolved the case), he continued his promising career in the field of exploration geology.

He contracted syphilis, returned to the town of Lausanne in France where he died on October 16, 1935.

Edited by: Brenda Booth

The Controversial Discovery of de Loys Ape - UFO Casebook (http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2011/deloysape.html)
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 01:00:08 AM
The Creature of Silver Star Mountain

QuoteThese pictures were captured on Silver Star Mountain in Gifford Pinchot National Forest outside Yacolt, Washington, November 17, 2005. They were taken by a backpacker from Vancouver who says he doesn't know what the figure was, but that he does not believe that it was another hiker or backpacker.

Closer examination of the footage reveals that it is indeed a bipedal hominoid creature, but is unknown whether or not it was human. It moves with the appearance of a creature traveling through deep snow and seems to be covered in reddish brown hair.

The state of Washington has a long history of Bigfoot sightings. In October 2006, in Island county, there was a sighting near the perimeter of Deception State Park. As recently as January of 2007 a couple reports hearing possible vocalizations of Bigfoot, one half mile north of Winlock, Washington in Lewis County. It is hoped that travelers and hikers in these areas will find more evidence of these creatures. For now, it remains a mystery.

(Brenda Booth)

(http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2007/bigfoot4large.jpg)
Photograph 1-These photographs, among the best 2007/Bigfoot/Sasquatch photographs for clarity, were taken on Silver Star Mountain, in Gifford Pinchot National Forest on November 17, 2005. Located outside of Yacolt, Washington, and taken by a backpacker.

(http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2007/bigfoot5large.jpg)
Photograph 2

(http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2007/bigfoot6large.jpg)
Photograph 2 enlarged

Source & References:

http://www.mysterycasebook.com/silverstarmountain.html
http://www.bfro.net/news/silver_star_mountain.asp
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 01:05:51 AM
(http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2007/bigfoot8large.jpg)

QuotePhotograph of an apparent Bigfoot-like creature taken in an unknown location.

source: http://theshadowlands.net/bf.htm






(http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2011/bigfootshelterok.jpg)

KTEN.com - No One Gets You Closer


Edited by: Brenda Booth
permanent link:
http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2011/sasquatchoklahomasbigfoot.html

source & references: KTEN Local News, OK
http://www.kten.com/story/15111820/2011/07/20/sasquatch-oklahomas-bigfoot







(http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2007/bigfoot10large.jpg)

QuoteThis photograph was taken in 1992 or 1993, by Annette Crews, 10 miles NE of Morton, WA. She thought she was snapping a picture of a bear... until she realized it was walking downhill on two legs.

This is NOT one of those photos where the photographer saw the object after the fact - she took the picture for the express purpose of capturing this moving object on film.

Unfortunately, the camera had no zoom. I have seen two of the series and can personally verify that the subject's position on the hillside had changed from one picture to another.

source: http://www.oregonbigfoot.com/crews.php
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 01:08:37 AM
The Shennongjia Wildman: China's Bigfoot

(http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2011/bigfootprintchina.jpg)

Published: 10:54 AM - 07-25-11

Reports from central China hint at yet more evidence that the so-called "Shennongjia Wildman" may actually exist. Shennongjia, in China's Hubei province, is one of the country's most rugged areas featuring mountains up to 9,840 ft (3,000 meters) tall and thick old-growth forests.

The Shennongjia National Nature Reserve , listed on UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves, protects a number of rare creatures including the endangered Golden Monkey but perhaps another, much larger primate may live there as well.

A number of sightings, supposed footprints, and samples of coarse hair have hinted at the possibility of a bigfoot-like creature existing deep in the wilds of Shennongjia. Anecdotal evidence paints a picture of a very tall, bipedal, ape-like animal with thick reddish or yellowish hair.

The latest report comes from Wang Taizhao, a local villager and farmer from nearby Chengkou county who was fertilizing his corn field early on the morning of June 2nd.

"I was so scared," said Wang in his statement to local police. "First I heard a strange noise from the woods near my corn field, which I thought to be the bark of a dog. Then I spotted a human-like creature approaching. I took a flight to my house with great haste."

Piecing together a description of the purported creature from Wang's recollection, investigators from the Public Security Bureau of Chengkou county estimated the creature was from 160cm to 170 cm tall (approximately 5.5 ft) and was covered head to toe with red and yellowish hair. It left at least 5 large, irregular footprints in Wang's cornfield, several of which were distinct enough to allow the investigators to create several plaster casts.

While the discovery of a few big footprints doesn't mean we've found a few bigfoot prints, this latest piece of the puzzle brings us a bit closer to understanding what the "Shennongjia Wildman" may 'or may not' be.

And to those who are rushing to add another branch to the human family tree, all we can suggest is 'not yeti.'

Edited by: Brenda Booth
permanent link:
http://www.mysterycasebook.com/2011/bigfootchina.html

source & references: Steve Levenstein
CHINA.new
InventorSpot.com
http://inventorspot.com/articles/chinas_bigfoot_leaves_big_footprints_chinese_cornfield
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 01:20:50 AM
China's 'Bigfoot' Leaves Big Footprints in Chinese Cornfield
by China.new


(http://inventorspot.com/files/images/bigfoot4.jpg)

QuoteReports from central China hint at yet more evidence that the so-called "Shennongjia Wildman" may actually exist. Shennongjia, in China's Hubei province, is one of the country's most rugged areas featuring mountains up to 9,840 ft (3,000 meters) tall and thick old-growth forests.

The Shennongjia National Nature Reserve, listed on UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves, protects a number of rare creatures including the endangered Golden Monkey but perhaps another, much larger primate may live there as well.

(http://inventorspot.com/files/images/220px-Location_of_Shennongjia_within_Hubei_China.img_assist_custom.png)

QuoteA number of sightings, supposed footprints, and samples of coarse hair have hinted at the possibility of a bigfoot-like creature existing deep in the wilds of Shennongjia. Anecdotal evidence paints a picture of a very tall, bipedal, ape-like animal with thick reddish or yellowish hair.

The latest report comes from Wang Taizhao, a local villager and farmer from nearby Chengkou county who was fertilizing his corn field early on the morning of June 2nd. "I was so scared," said Wang in his statement to local police. "First I heard a strange noise from the woods near my corn field, which I thought to be the bark of a dog. Then I spotted a human-like creature approaching. I took a flight to my house with great haste."

(http://inventorspot.com/files/images/Yeren.img_assist_custom.jpg)

QuotePiecing together a description of the purported creature from Wang's recollection, investigators from the Public Security Bureau of Chengkou county estimated the creature was from 160cm to 170 cm tall (approximately 5.5 ft) and was covered head to toe with red and yellowish hair. It left at least 5 large, irregular footprints in Wang's cornfield, several of which were distinct enough to allow the investigators to create several plaster casts.

While the discovery of a few big footprints doesn't mean we've found a few bigfoot prints, this latest piece of the puzzle brings us a bit closer to understanding what the "Shennongjia Wildman" may – or may not – be.

And to those who are rushing to add another branch to the human family tree, all we can suggest is "not yeti."

China's 'Bigfoot' Leaves Big Footprints in Chinese Cornfield (http://inventorspot.com/articles/chinas_bigfoot_leaves_big_footprints_chinese_cornfield)
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 02:25:44 AM
Gigantopithecus

(http://vzglyadzagran.ru/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/yeren.jpg)

QuoteGigantopithecus (from the Ancient Greek gigas "giant", and pithekos "ape") is an extinct genus of ape that existed from roughly nine million years to as recently as one hundred thousand years ago, in what is now China, India, and Vietnam, placing Gigantopithecus in the same time frame and geographical location as several hominin species. The fossil record suggests that individuals of the species Gigantopithecus blacki were the largest apes that ever lived, standing up to 3 metres (9.8 ft), and weighing up to 540 kilograms (1,200 lb).

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/F._Schrenk_mit_Gigantopithecus-Molar_2005.jpg/800px-F._Schrenk_mit_Gigantopithecus-Molar_2005.jpg)
Holotype (molar) of Giganthopithecus blacki, in the background Prof. Friedemann Schrenk, Senckenberg-Institut, Frankfurt am Main, Germany courtesy of the press office of Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

QuoteThe first Gigantopithecus remains described by an anthropologist were found in 1935 by Ralph von Koenigswald in an apothecary shop. Fossilized teeth and bones are often ground into powder and used in some branches of traditional Chinese medicine. Von Koenigswald named the theorized species Gigantopithecus.

Since then relatively few fossils of Gigantopithecus have been recovered. Aside from the molars recovered in Chinese traditional medicine shops, Liucheng Cave in Liuzhou, China has produced numerous Gigantopithecus blacki teeth as well as several jawbones. Other sites yielding significant finds were in Vietnam and India. These finds suggest the range of Gigantopithecus was southeast Asia.

In 1955 forty-seven Gigantopithecus blacki teeth were found among a shipment of 'dragon bones' in China. Tracing these teeth to their source resulted in recovery of more teeth and a rather complete large mandible. By 1958, three mandibles and more than 1,300 teeth had been recovered. Gigantopithecus remains have come from sites in Hubei, Guangxi and Sichuan; from warehouses for Chinese medicinal products as well as from cave deposits. Not all Chinese remains have been dated to the same time period, and the fossils in Hubei appear to be of a later date than elsewhere in China. The Hubei teeth are also larger.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Gigantopithecus_blacki_mandible_010112.jpg/549px-Gigantopithecus_blacki_mandible_010112.jpg)
Lower mandible of Gigantopithecus blacki (cast). In the collections of The College of Wooster, Ohio. Author: Wilson44691

Characteristics

QuoteGigantopithecus's method of locomotion is uncertain, as no pelvic or leg bones have been found. The dominant view is that it walked on all fours like modern gorillas and chimpanzees; however, a minority opinion favor bipedal locomotion, most notably championed by the late Grover Krantz, but this assumption is based only on the very few jawbone remains found, all of which are U-shaped and widen towards the rear. This allows room for the windpipe to be within the jaw, allowing the skull to sit squarely upon a fully erect spine like modern humans, rather than roughly in front of it, like the other great apes.

The majority view is that the weight of such a large, heavy animal would put enormous stress on the creature's legs, ankles and feet if it walked bipedally; while if it walked on all four limbs, like gorillas, its weight would be better distributed over each limb.

Diet

QuoteThe jaws of Gigantopithecus are deep and very thick. The molars are low crowned and flat and exhibit heavy enamel suitable for tough grinding. The premolars are broad and flat and configured similarly to the molars. The canine teeth are neither pointed nor sharp, while the incisors are small, peglike and closely aligned. The features of teeth and jaws suggested that the animal was adapted to chewing tough, fibrous food by cutting, crushing and grinding it. Gigantopithecus teeth also have a large number of cavities, similar to those found in giant pandas, whose diet, which includes a large amount of bamboo, may be similar to that of Gigantopithecus.

In addition to bamboo, Gigantopithecus consumed other vegetable foods, as suggested by the analysis of the phytoliths adhering to its teeth. An examination of the microscopic scratches and gritty plant remains embedded in Gigantopithecus teeth suggests that they ingested seeds and fruit as well as bamboo.

Species

QuoteThere are presently three (extinct) named species of Gigantopithecus: Gigantopithecus blacki, Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis, and Gigantopithecus giganteus.

Gigantopithecus blacki

QuoteGigantopithecus blacki is only known through fossil teeth and mandibles found in cave sites in Southeast Asia. As the name suggests, these are appreciably larger than those of living gorillas, but the exact size and structure of the rest of the body can only be estimated in the absence of additional findings. Dating methods have shown that G. blacki existed for about a million years, going extinct about 100,000 years ago after having been contemporary with (anatomically) modern humans (Homo sapiens) for tens of thousands of years, and co-existing with H. erectus before the appearance of H. sapiens.

Morphology

QuoteBased on the fossil evidence, it is believed that adult male Gigantopithecus blacki stood about 3 m (9.8 ft) tall and weighed as much as 540 kg (1,200 lb), making the species two to three times heavier than modern gorillas and nearly five times heavier than the orangutan, its closest living relative. Large males may have had an armspan of over 12 feet (3.6 m). The species was highly sexually dimorphic, with adult females roughly half the weight of males. Due to wide interspecies differences in the relationship between tooth and body size, some argue[citation needed] that it is more likely that Gigantopithecus was much smaller, at roughly 1.8 m (5.9 ft).

The species lived in Asia and probably inhabited bamboo forests, since its fossils are often found alongside those of extinct ancestors of the panda. Most evidence points to Gigantopithecus being a plant-eater.

Its appearance is not known, because of the fragmentary nature of its fossil remains. It is possible that it resembled modern gorillas, because of its supposedly similar lifestyle. Some scientists, however, think that it probably looked more like its closest modern relative, the orangutan. Being so large, it is possible that Gigantopithecus had few or no enemies when fully grown. However, younger, weak or injured individuals may have been vulnerable to predation by tigers, pythons, crocodiles, Dinofelis, hyenas, bears, and Homo erectus.

Classification

QuoteIn the past, it had been thought that G. blacki was an ancestor of humans, on the basis of molar evidence; this is now regarded a result of convergent evolution. G. blacki is now placed in the subfamily Ponginae along with the orangutan.

Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Gigantopithecus_bilaspurensis_mandible.JPG/800px-Gigantopithecus_bilaspurensis_mandible.JPG)
Fossil of Gigantopithecus, an extinct mammal - Took the picture at Museo di Paleontologia di Firenze

QuoteGigantopithecus bilaspurensis is a very large fossil ape identified from a few jaw bones and teeth from India. G. bilaspurensis lived about 6 to 9 million years ago in the Miocene. It is related to Gigantopithecus blacki.

Gigantopithecus giganteus

QuoteEvidence of a separate species, Gigantopithecus giganteus, has been found in northern India and China. In the Guangxi region of China, teeth of this species were discovered in limestone formations in Daxin and Wuming, north of Nanning. Despite the name, it is believed that giganteus was approximately half the size of blacki.[3][4] Based on the slim fossil finds, it was a large, ground-dwelling herbivore that ate primarily bamboo and foliage.

Gigantopithecus From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantopithecus)

References

Christmas, Jane (2005-11-07). "Giant Ape lived alongside humans" (http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/article/giant-ape-lived-alongside-humans/). McMaster University.

Ciochon, R.; et al. (1996). "Dated Co-Occurrence of Homo erectus and Gigantopithecus from Tham Khuyen Cave, Vietnam" (http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/PNAS%20Giganto-Vietnam.pdf) (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 93 (7): 3016–3020. doi:10.1073/pnas.93.7.3016. PMC 39753. PMID 8610161.

Coichon, R. (1991). "The ape that was - Asian fossils reveal humanity's giant cousin" (http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/giganto.html). Natural History 100: 54–62. ISSN 0028-0712.

Pettifor, Eric (2000) [1995]. "From the Teeth of the Dragon: Gigantopithecus Blacki" (http://www.wynja.com/arch/gigantopithecus.html). Selected Readings in Physical Anthropology. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. pp. 143–149. ISBN 0-7872-7155-1.

"How Gigantopithecus was discovered" (http://web.archive.org/web/20071012201552/http://www.uiowa.edu/~nathist/Site/giganto.html). The University of Iowa Museum of Natural History. Archived from the original on 2007-10-12.

Relethford, J. (2003). The Human Species: An Introduction to Biological Anthropology. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-7674-3022-7.

Poirier, F.E.; McKee, J.K. (1999). Understanding Human Evolution (fourth ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p. 119.

Olejniczak, A.J.; et at (2008). "Molar enamel thickness and dentine horn height in Gigantopithecus blacki" (http://www.anthonyolejniczak.com/PDF/olejniczak_et_al_2008_AJPA_Gigantopithecus.pdf). (PDF) American Journal of Physical Anthropology 135: 85–91. doi:10.1002/ajpa.20711.
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 02:42:59 AM
The Ape That Was
Asian fossils reveal humanity's giant cousin
by Russell L. Ciochon


(http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/mound.jpg)
A cave near the top of the rounded limestone tower at Liucheng, China has yielded three Gigantopithecus jawbones and nearly a thousand teeth.

(http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/jaw.jpg)
The largest of the jaws, along with some of the teeth, are compared at with modern human remains.

(http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/comp.jpg)
Bill Munns stands next to his model of a Gigantopithecus male, a quadrupedal, fist-walking creature that also could have stood erect, as bears do.

(http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/gmapbig.jpg)

(http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/site.jpg)
Bamboo leaves frame the scientists excavating the cemented deposits in Lang Trang Cave IV.


The Ape That Was (http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/giganto.html)

Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 02:46:36 AM
Carbon Isotopes Find Out Gigantopithecus blacki Lived in Densely Forested Areas

(http://throughevolution.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/gigantopithecus.jpg)
New research suggests that Gigantopithecus blacki lived in densly forested areas, like the one pictured here. Unknown artist. Image from here (http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1602/pcprimpr.html).

QuoteA new paper published in the Chinese Science Bulletin has used oxygen radioisotopes in the teeth of G. blacki to prove the environment of Southeast China 1.1-0.1 ma was densely forested and rather similar to today. This suggests that the teeth and – more specifically – the molars of G. blacki were used for chewing on tough bamboo and other chlorophyll-stuffed plants.

Reference

LingXia Zhao, LiZhao Zhang, FuSong Zhang, XinZhi Wu (2011). "Enamel carbon isotope evidence of diet and habitat of Gigantopithecus blacki and associated mammalian megafauna in the Early Pleistocene of South China" (http://www.springerlink.com/content/q9839178gph3l38q/fulltext.pdf?MUD=MP). Chinese Science Bulletin, 56(33): 3590-3595. doi: 0.1007/s11434-011-4732-4.
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 02:56:15 AM
The Bigfoot-Giganto Theory

Quote"Bigfoot research" is a term loosely used to describe any efforts to probe or explain the reports and physical evidence associated with bigfoots. Over the years several different theories have been offered. Some of the more common theories are: 1) fear manifestations, 2) misidentifications of bears, 3) paranormal / UFO-related, 4) the Collective-Memory hypothesis, 5) the Bigfoot-Giganto hypothesis.

Bigfoot advocates as well as informed skeptics generally do not believe a hoax is responsible for this phenomenon, primarily because the observations extend so far back in time.

The patterns among eyewitnesses are not demographic, they are geographic -- they are not reported by certain types of people, rather by people who venture into certain areas. This simple pattern suggests an external cause.

No matter what that cause is, it is important to understand, and not just because of the potential behind the most likely explanation.

Bigfoot researchers generally lean toward one explanation: The Bigfoot-Giganto Theory (hypothesis). The subject of Gigantopithecus has attracted an increasing amount of interest anthropologists and primatologitsts over the past few decades. The Bigfoot-Giganto hypothesis suggests that bigfoots are surving relatives of the genus Gigantopithecus. Gigantopithecus (the Latin word for "Giant Ape") was a giant cousin of the orangutan. It was presumed to be extinct.

Click on the figure to the upper right to see a chart showing the place of Gigantos in primate evolution. (http://www.bfro.net/ref/theories/mjm/prmevch.gif)

Bigfoot-Giganto theorists deal with a few issues that affect the potential linkage of modern bigfoot reports to ancient Gigantos. Probably the most crucial question concerns whether Gigantos walked upright. There is more than one school of thought among anthrolopogists regarding this issue. Some physical anthropologists interpret the scant fossilized remains to indicate an upright walking ape, measuring an impressive nine feet tall, and weighing more than 1000 pounds -- the general description of bigfoot type creatures reported for centuries in North America and Asia. Even if Giganto posture is uncertain, no one can reasonably dispute the conclusion that Gigantos were the largest primates that ever walked the earth.

Bigfoot-Giganto theorists believe that Gigantos' large brain size (perhaps the largest in the terrestrial animal kingdom) and upright-walking posture facilitated their dispersion across Asia and North America. Thousands of years of adaptation to temperate and mountainous climates, it is believed, would have given these large upright walking apes the ability to tolerate cold temperatures, climb through deep snow, and cross high mountain ranges with relative ease.

(http://www.bfro.net/ref/theories/mjm/giganto3.jpg)

QuoteThe most commonly heard argument against the Bigfoot-Giganto hypothesis is that "we should have found their bones in North America by now..." This argument is, in fact, weak when one considers that very few remains of Gigantos have ever been found in Asia, where they were much more abundant. Tens of thousands of years of Gigantos' accepted existence in Asia would have produced literally millions of Giganto skeletons, yet the volume of collected remains from Asia is so small that the entire collection could fit easily in one suitcase.

(http://www.bfro.net/ref/theories/mjm/munns.jpg)

QuoteOne flavor of the Bigfoot-Giganto hypothesis suggests that bigfoots might not be direct descendants of the genus Gigantopithecus, but rather some other offshoot of the giant Asian "wood ape" line, perhaps a line for which we have zero fossils remains at the present time. The Giganto line is an important reference point for this alternate explanation for two reasons: 1) the Giganto line illustrates the potential for primates to grow to such 'gigantic' proportions (twice as large as the largest 'known' living primate), and 2) the fact that so few remains of Gigantos have been unearthed and identified makes it more conceivable that there could have been other lines of giant Asian wood apes for which we have no fossil remains at the present time.

(http://www.bfro.net/images/lineupWeb_v4_1231.jpg)

QuotePeople often assume that bones of a wild animal are present and available long after the animal's death. Many people assume that wild animal bones always become fossilized. The fact is bones become fossilized or otherwise preserved only in the rarest of circumstances. Without fossilization or preservation, bones of wild animals will, in time, become completely reabsorbed into the biomass. We would literally be climbing over piles of animal bones if they were not naturally recycled. An animal carcass in a dense forest will be reabsorbed relatively quickly through weathering, decay and scavenging by other animals and insects. The odds are very very poor that bones of a rare, elusive, forest dwelling species will be found in some recognizable form by a hiker cruising along a trail.

No research group has ever made an attempt to look for Giganto bones in North America, so no one should be surprised that Giganto remains have never been identified in North America. Ironically, the most vocal skeptics and scientists who rhetorically ask why no bones have been located and identified on this continent are the last people who would ever make an effort to look for them. Some Bigfoot-Giganto theorists speculate that fragmentary remains of Gigantos have been unearthed in North America in the past but were simply disregarded or misidentified.

The second most common argument against the Bigfoot-Giganto hypothesis asks " Why haven't hunters shot one in North America yet ? ..." The reasons are more obvious than most people might realize, and there's enough of them to make a separate article on that topic (http://www.bfro.net/gdb/show_FAQ.asp?id=411).

The third most common argument against the Bigfoot-Giganto hypothesis asks " Why aren't there more photos of these modern Gigantos ? ..." This question is also addressed in a separate article (http://www.bfro.net/gdb/show_FAQ.asp?id=412).

Copyright © 2012 BFRO.net

The Bigfoot-Giganto Theory (http://www.bfro.net/ref/theories/mjm/whatrtha.asp)

How come a hunter hasn't shot one? (http://www.bfro.net/gdb/show_FAQ.asp?id=411)

Why isn't there more footage of a sasquatch? (http://www.bfro.net/gdb/show_FAQ.asp?id=412)
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 03:01:34 AM
Big Tooth

So Science accepts that there were THOUSANDS of the critters around, yet all we have is a mere handful of teeth and jawbones... yet based on that small bit of evidence they created a whole species :D

(http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/sciences/paleontology/paleozoology/fossilhominids/PictureGallery/giganto1.gif)

QuoteThe mandibles (lower jaws) depicted in this and the two following "thumbnails" represent the gigantic ape Gigantopithecus blacki known from the Pleistocene of China and Vietnam, approximately 1.3 - 0.3 MYA. These three jaws all come from one site, a karst cave near Liucheng, Guangxi, in southern China. Gigantopithecus was originally thought to be an early human ancestor but is now considered by many to be a cousin of the living orang-utan. Besides these three jaws and a similar specimen dated to approximately 6 MYA from India, Gigantopithecus is known only by isolated teeth from a number of localities in south and central China. This giant ape was contemporaneous with archaic humans throughout its range.

(http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/sciences/paleontology/paleozoology/fossilhominids/PictureGallery/giganto2.gif)

QuoteGigantopithecus probably subsisted on a diet rich in carbohydrates, possibly including a large quantity of bamboo. Its teeth in some ways mimic those of early hominids, particularly those of robust australopithecines, in the molarization of the premolars and the reduction of the canines relative to other apes. Although reliable estimates of its size are hard to make it can be assumed that "Giganto" was the largest primate that ever lived.

(http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/sciences/paleontology/paleozoology/fossilhominids/PictureGallery/giganto3.gif)

QuoteThe true affinities of Gigantopithecus are still unknown and they will remain a mystery until diagnostic cranial remains are eventually found. Southern China is dotted with karstic fissures, some of which have yielded complete fossil skeletons of extinct Pleistocene mammals. There is a chance therefore that someday more complete remains of "Giganto" will be forthcoming. To learn more about Gigantopithecus read "Other Origins" by R. Ciochon et al., Bantam Books, 1990.

Picture Gallery of Fossil Hominoids and Hominids from China (http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/sciences/paleontology/paleozoology/fossilhominids/PictureGallery/PictureGallery.htm)
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 03:16:39 AM
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3563/3560547869_3ff50f73fc_z.jpg)

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2144/1906373128_ec43f1071f.jpg)

(http://www.museumoftheweird.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/HohRainForest.jpg)
Title: Re: Bigfoot - Fact or Fiction?
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2012, 03:20:18 AM
Arkansas Bigfoot Pictures

QuoteA man comes forward with three Bigfoot photos from Arkansas! 

Recently, a man by the initials of D.M. sent us three Bigfoot pictures that were taken in
Arkansas over a decade ago.  Here are his words that accompanied the photographs:

"...took this in northwest Arkansas between Fayetteville and Fort Smith. It (the Bigfoot) was hitting two rocks together. It (the Bigfoot) is looking back at us, while walking away. It bent down, pulled a stump out of the ground and tossed it at us. No one was hurt. To this day, it is still alive that I know of.  Took this photo back in 1997."

(http://ourbigfoot.com/images/arkansas_bigfoot_pictures_8.jpg)
Image 8 of the Bigfoot in the Arkansas woods.

(http://ourbigfoot.com/sitebuilder/images/arkansas_bigfoot_pictures_9-516x422.jpg)
Image 9 of the Bigfoot.

(http://ourbigfoot.com/sitebuilder/images/arkansas_bigfoot_pictures_10-516x414.jpg)
Image 10 of the Arkansas Bigfoot

(http://ourbigfoot.com/images/arkansas_bigfoot_photo_8.jpg)  (http://ourbigfoot.com/sitebuilder/images/arkansas_bigfoot_photo_9-246x343.jpg)  (http://ourbigfoot.com/sitebuilder/images/arkansas_bigfoot_photo_10-259x340.jpg)
Close-ups of all three Bigfoot photos