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bigfoot (dict)
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Bigfoot - This article is about Bigfoot, a legendary creature. For the monster truck, see Bigfoot (truck).
Bigfoot is the name given to a large creature allegedly living in the remote wilderness areas of the US (the Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes, the Rocky Mountains, the Southern forests, the Northeastern forests) and southwestern Canada. An alternative term is Sasquatch, a word coined and popularized by J.W. Burns of Vancouver, British Columbia in the 1920s, which he derived from several Northwest Coast Native American terms describing a figure with some similarities. Along with the Loch Ness Monster and Yeti, Bigfoot is perhaps the most famous creature in cryptozoology. Most mainstream scientists have found existing Sasquatch evidence unpersuasive and consider such evidence and sightings the product of mythology, folklore, misidentification or hoaxes. While Bigfoot may or may not exist, a Bigfoot culture of mostly amateur researchers is active. Some professionals and academics have argued that though current evidence may be lacking, further evidence should be evaluated objectively as it arises. Others, including many amateurs, continue research and consider the existence of Sasquatch a possibility. Description Witnesses generally report similar features: A large, apelike bipedal creature usually 7 to 9 feet (2.1 to 2.7 m) tall, broad shouldered and strongly built. The head is small, pointed and low-set; sometimes a low crest or ridge is reported on top of the skull; sometimes a head that is more round is reported. The eyes are usually described as small, hidden below a pronounced brow. Excepting the face, hands and feet, short shaggy hair covers the body. Hair color is reported as being black, brown, rust, reddish, sandy, or silver. Most sightings are at night, leading to speculation that sasquatch are nocturnal. Individuals are usually reported, though some witnesses report pairs or family groups. Existence Arguments against - Generally, mainstream scientists and academics "discount the existence of Bigfoot because the evidence supporting belief in the survival of a prehistoric bipedal apelike creature of such dimensions is scant."http://skepdic.com/bigfoot.html
- In Northern Europe there was formerly a belief in trolls, which some have suggested is similar to Bigfoot legends.
- Most of the areas where Bigfoot has been reported are near habitats of bears, notably including the grizzly bear. Bears are large and furry and often stand up on their hind legs.
- Alleged physical evidence that might support the existence of Bigfoot, such as audiotapes and video, is of poor quality. A number of people report sightings, but those could easily be explained by hoaxes and confusion about what they really encountered.
- Fur samples and other alleged physical evidence collected by Bigfoot proponents that have undergone DNA testing have all been from bears and other common animals.
- Ray Wallace claimed to have produced a substantial amount of hoaxed evidence from 1958 onward in a prank that continued beyond his expectations. Wallace's family published many of the details following his death in 2002.
- Stories of alleged Bigfoot sightings that predate the world-wide interest in reports of an Abominable Snowman in the Himalayas almost invariably either were not reported until afterwards or have little to no resemblence to typical Bigfoot sightings, strongly suggesting that people were willing distorting history to try to lend support to existing beliefs.
- At least one film (the Patterson-Gimlin film) shows something that is definitely not a bear, and this film was for a long time considered the strongest evidence for Bigfoot. Wallace claimed to have been involved in hoaxing the film.
- Rumors circulated that the creature seen in the Patterson-Gimlin film was a suit designed by special effects legend John Chambers. Some reports state that film director John Landis started such rumors. Chambers designed the ape costumes seen in many of the original Planet of the Apes films, and was reportedly an acquaintance of Ray Wallace and Bob Gimlin.
- Curiously, the alleged creature shown in the Patterson-Gimlin film possesses both a male sagittal crest (as in gorillas) and pendulous female breasts (as in human and chimpanzee females). Some have argued that the sagittal crest is not a male or female trait, but a size-related trait.
- The hypothesis that sasquatch might be a late surviving representative of the Gigantopithecus blacki is generally considered highly speculative. Rigorous studies of the existing fossilized remains seem to indicate that G. blacki is the common ancestor of two quadrupedal genera, represented by the Sivapithecus and the orangutan (Pongo). As the likelihood that these two modern animals would be descended from a bipedal animal does not seem plausible or probable to scientists, the current consensus is that G. blacki walked on all fours as a quadruped like an orangutan or Sivapithecus, not as a biped as Bigfoot is said to walk, and the enormous mass of G. blacki would have made it difficult for it to adopt a bipedal gait.
- There have been many reported sightings, but physical evidence for the existence of Bigfoot has been ambigous at best, or hoaxes at worst. There have been no dead bodies, bones or artifacts. There have been reported samples of fur and faeces, but analyses have varied widely. Considering how many amateur and professional researchers have been looking for such evidence for decades, the absence of such evidence seems to some sufficient evidence for Bigfoots lack of existence.
Arguments for - Absence of fossilized evidence is not evidence of fossil absence. Sasquatch is not represented in the fossil record, but neither are gorillas and chimpanzees.
- Some cryptozoologists have argued the most persuasive evidence for Bigfoot's existence is a high number—possibly thousands—of credible eyewitness reports from individuals who claim to have clearly seen creatures they describe as large, bipedal and apelike. Some consider such circumstantial evidence persuasive. See List of Notable Bigfoot Sightings and Reports below.
- Photographs or plaster casts of footprints are often cited by cryptozoologist as important evidence, while others have argued such footprints are hoaxed. Krantz has cited a number of prints containing dermal ridges (fingerprints). Krantz reports that he offered casts of these prints to several law enforcement officials, who thought the dermal ridges were genuine, and further noted that a hoax seemed unlikely. Opinion remains divided, however, with suggestions that the man who "discovered" the prints had confessed to other hoaxes http://www.n2.net/prey/bigfoot/articles/skeptical.htm.
- The vast majority of reports are generated from areas that are low in human population densities. In addition, most reports are from areas where annual rainfall is in excess of twenty inches (500 mm). Rivers, creeks, or lakes are usually in close proximity to sightings. Researchers point out that these common threads among most sightings indicate patterns of a living species, as opposed to hoaxed sightings. Researchers question why individuals would be more inclined to perpetrate hoaxes in areas where very few people live or in areas of twenty inches (500 mm) or more of annual rainfall.
- Reports of large, bipedal hominid-like creatures from the remote wilderness exist from well before any hoaxers were born, however—including one sighting by President Theodore Roosevelt. Unknown large primates have been reported in wilderness regions on every continent except Antarctica. One of the more famous is the Yeti (or Abominable Snowman) of the Himalaya. Enthusiasts go so far as to theorize that at least some of these reports could be of present-day specimens of the giant ape Gigantopithecus.
- There have been analyses of purported sasquatch hair and feces. Some were deemed hoaxes, but a few seemed more puzzling and were judged as belonging to an undetermined primates. All that have been studied using DNA testing and other animals have shown to have come from common animals, however.
- Analyses of purported sasquatch or bigfoot vocalizations have been recorded and analyzed, leading some bioacoustics experts such as Dr. Robert Benson of Texas A&M to declare the source of the sounds as "unknown".
- Casts of tracks have been found to contain dermal ridges. Upon examination, experts in the field of primate dermal ridges have considered the tracks to be of a primate, heretofore unknown.
- The late Grover Krantz suggested that most academics who contend Bigfoot does not exist lack even a passing familiarity with the small body of serious scholarly work on the subject, and have not examined available evidence, some of which, Krantz contended, was very persuasive.
- Recently, Henry Gee, editor of the prestigious Nature, writes of an unexpected discovery, that "The discovery that Homo floresiensis survived until so very recently, in geological terms, makes it more likely that stories of other mythical, human-like creatures such as yetis are founded on grains of truth....Now, cryptozoology, the study of such fabulous creatures, can come in from the cold" http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041025/full/041025-2.html.
- If an animal like Sasquatch ever existed in North America, a more likely candidate would be a species of Paranthropus, such as Paranthropus robustus, which would have looked very much like Sasquatch, including the crested skull and naturally bipedal gait.
- There is also a little known subspecies of Homo erectus known as meganthropus which actually did grow to enormous proportions, though newest remains of the hominid pre-date 1 million years and have only be found several thousand miles away from North America.
Notable Bigfoot sightings and reports Footnotes - The method of locomotion for Gigantopithecus is not entirely certain, as no pelvis or leg bone has been found, the only remains of Gigantopithecus discovered are teeth and mandible. A minority opinion championed by Grover Krantz holds that the mandible shape and structure suggests bipedal locomotion. The only fossil evidence of gigantopithecus—the mandible and teeth—are U-shaped, like bipedal humans, rather than V-shaped like the great apes. A complete fossil specimen with the pelvis and leg bones would be necessary to conclusively resolve the debate one way or the other, and have to date never been found.
- Gorillas are in the same class as chimpanzees; gorillas are more closely related to humans and chimpanzees than they are orangutans.
See also External links
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