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Bigfoot! The name is recognised the world over and is synonymous with mystery, if not a little magic. Bigfoot, that elusive, hairy, upright walking ape man of America’s wildest places has long stalked the beliefs and imaginations of First Nation people and modern Americans alike. Over the course of the next few articles, I will try to explain how it could be possible for Bigfoot to exist. Not just as an uncouth ‘wild-man’, aloof and clinging onto existence at the fringes of civilization, but as a sophisticated hominid, whose resourcefulness and intelligence rivals our own.

Bigfoot Taxonomy

That Bigfoot is not the only hairy ape man to inhabit the Americas may come as a surprise to some, they go by many names and what you call them depends just as much on your locale as it does on the creature you are spotting.

People see Skunk-Apes in Florida, Urayuli in Alaska, The Borrego Sandman in California, Wild Men in Tennessee, Ohio’s Grass Man and the Appalachian Wood Booger to name but a few and among the cryptozoologist community, a lively debate ensues as to whether these Bigfoot are all same type, or whether there are in fact several different species separated by geography and distance.

Another common name often used interchangeably with Bigfoot is Sasquatch, which is believed to be an Anglicization of the Salish word Sasq’ets, meaning “wild man” or “hairy man.”

Bigfoot Are Everywhere

Beyond North America, legends of Bigfoot like beings abound, indeed every continent apart from Antarctica has at least one (but usually more than one) such creature associated with it. Everyone has heard of Tibet’s Yeti, ‘The Abominable Snowman’ of legend but what about China’s Yeren? the Australian Yowie?, The Mongolian Alma? the Orang Pendak of Indonesia? Nguoi Rung of Vietnam? Pakistan’s Barmanu? And there are many more..

It is interesting to note that while most other cryptids, even animals are local to specific areas or regions. Bigfoot, like humans can be found in every corner of the world. Where there are people, there are ‘Bigfoot stories’, what is more, these stories don’t just come from the myths and legends handed down by native peoples, these stories are being added to on an almost daily basis, as people continue to encounter unexplained ‘hominids’ out in the wilderness.

These creatures have never been far from the human psyche, perhaps our species, Homo sapiens harbour some ancestral memory lodged in the darkest corner of our primitive subconscious, of a time when our supremacy on the Earth was anything but assured.

Human Origins Revised

The scientific field of human paleontology has advanced a great deal since Dr Leakey ‘s day and new research is making the case, that we modern humans shared our environment with at least three other hominid species: Neanderthals, Denisovans and for a while at least, residual populations of Homo erectus, which coexisted with modern humans in South East Asia.

That cross-species interbreeding did occur, is now commonly accepted among many scientists. The fossil record clearly shows that different sub branches of human species seemed to diverge from the main evolutionary line from time to time, before dieing out altogether or rejoining it at a later point in time.

The lineages are constantly splitting, dying, and rejoining. It’s believed our line split off from our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, around 500,000 years ago. But it’s not clear when we became “human.” Evolution doesn’t always provide clean cutoffs from one form of a species to the next

vox.com

A brilliant example of this principle can be seen in the case of the ‘Hobbit’, or Homo floresiensis to give them their proper scientific name. These diminutive people, barely 4 feet tall were true hominids, they were closely related to Homo-sapiens but were a distinct species in their own right.

‘Hobbits‘ inhabited the Indonesian island of Flores until at least 17000 years ago, although local tradition asserts they were still surviving in small numbers when the first Europeans arrived during the 1600s, only becoming extinct in the early years of the 20th century. Homo-sapiens are thought to have settled on Flores some 50,000 years ago, which means modern humans and Hobbits shared the same small island for at least 30000 years.

Paleontologists believe that Homo floresiensis were the remains of a parent population of Homo erectus ( possibly even Austrolophicus) and suffered from the phenomena of Island Dwarfism, after changing sea levels cut them off from the mainland roughly, 1 million years earlier.

Java’s Real Life Hobbit, The Basis Of a Terrifying Legend?

As fascinating as this is, I find it truly startling that Homo floresiensis were completely unknown to science until 2003, when their fossil remains were uncovered during excavations at the Liang Bua cave system on Flores Island. The native inhabitants of Flores however,  had been telling tales of the legendary ‘Ebu Gogo’ for centuries. The Ebu Gogo was described as a small human like creature who would kidnap and eat human children to satisfy its voracious appetite. The native Nage people described Ebu Gogo as:

….walkers and fast runners around 1.5 m tall. They reportedly had wide and flat noses, broad faces with large mouths and hairy bodies. The females also had “long, pendulous breasts”. They were said to have murmured in what was assumed to be their own language and could reportedly repeat what was said to them in a parrot-like fashion.

The arrogance of western science dismiss myths like this as pure fantasy, but I find it poignant to think that perhaps these stories are actually describing a people on the brink of extinction. An archaic fossil human species, being out bred, and out matched for resources by their more capable Homo sapien cousins and without the ability to adapt, were gradually pushed further into the margins.

Forced into hiding, the terminal decline of Homo floresiensis was slow but inevitable. These beings subsisted on what they could scavenge, (Ebu Gogo translates as glutton, perhaps they were literally starving) which included the occasional snatched child. The arrival of Europeans can only have hastened their demise.

Yesterdays Cryptids, Today’s Zoo Exhibits

Is it possible that vestigial populations of our hominid cousins are still residing in the world’s remote corners? Unlike the Hobbits’, they have more wilderness to reside in and are wily enough to know that avoiding their aggressive and prolific relatives offers them the best chance of survival?

For those who think that mankind’s ‘civilising’ reach is too pervasive to contemplate the possibility of large animals remaining unknown in the 21^st Century, there are numerous examples, including the 2013 discovery of the 100kg Kabomani Tapir deep in the South American rain forest to demonstrate that this is not the case.

A quick look at Wikipedia’s list of uninhabited regions, clearly demonstrates that there is more than enough space for any elusive creature to remain out of sight. A glance at North America for example, might surprise many people at just how much uninhabited wilderness still remains in that most developed of first world nations.

Bigfoot Origins

One interesting feature of the worldwide Bigfoot phenomena appears to be the great size differential between reported creatures in different regions of the world, whose estimated heights measure anywhere from 5-6 ft right up to a colossal 10 or even 20ft tall.

Clearly then, if we are to accept the possibility of a Homo erectus or other pre-human hominid descendant still running around in the wilds, then we must also consider that Homo erectus ( from what we know from the fossil record was on average 5.5 feet in size) cannot be responsible for sighting reports featuring giant hominids. For these, we must speculate on the origins of some other, as yet undiscovered lineage.

The Biggest Darn Gorilla That Ever Lived!

Gigantopithicus blacki the largest primate to have ever existed is cited as one possible candidate for any number of reported sightings for giant Bigfoot. Gigantopithicus was approximately 9 feet tall and weighed in at about 450lbs. The archaeological record places these creatures in Southern China and Southeast Asia, where they coexisted for a long time with Homo erectus, before going extinct approximately 300,000 years ago; Probably as a result of climate change and /or predation by Homo erectus.

Could Gigantopithicus, or an evolved relative have survived somehow in Asia to become the Yeti? Or manage even to follow humans across the Bering Strait land bridge into America? At this time the paucity of fossil evidence makes it impossible to say for sure, but it is important to remember that,

our ancestors coexisted with many types and kinds of fossil humans, near men, fossil apes, modern apes and modern humans. They all lived at the same time. Surprising findings and new evidence continue to reinforce the fact that we have rarely been alone and may not be today. Other hairy hominids may still be our neighbours, perhaps well hidden, but our contemporaries nonetheless.

It is interesting to note that witness descriptions of Bigfoot often vary considerably in facial characteristics and countenance depending on where they are seen. Bigfoot appearances can range from ape-like to human-like and encompass all variables in between. Could there in fact be numerous species of Bigfoot in existence? With some coming from an ape like ancestry and others coming from a more hominid lineage? I think that is entirely possible.

Over the course of the next few next articles, I will discuss new ‘Bigfoot’ classification methods that have been developed by those researchers who are trying to apply a more scientific taxonomy to this particular branch of cryptozoology, and in turn will categorize as many of the most common American and worldwide sightings into the system as I can. It will be fascinating to see if there are possible patterns of type and /or location, that would lend credence to the ideas of distinct Bigfoot populations living within defined geographical limits.

Source: StrangerTimes.net