Source: *Understanding Physical Anthropology and Archeology*,
Fourth Edition, 1990; Robert Jurmain, Harry Nelson and William
A. Turnbaugh; West Publishing Company,
St. Paul, Minnesota.
Primate Evolution (Chapter 10)
Issue: Is There a Bigfoot?
Ancient legends tell of
Sasquatch, a strange, hairy, bipedal
creature prowling the wilds of North America. In fact,
Sasquatches,
abominable snowmen, and other such creatures
have been reported from at least 100 separate areas of the
world. In North America, they have been reported most often
from British Columbia,
Washington, Oregon, and northern
California. Various unexplained beasts, however, have also
been "seen" from
Alaska to
Mexico and from the
Pacific Coastto northern Michigan. Tales of these creatures, which are
usually called *Bigfoot*, are today even further embellished
as sightings, footprints, hair fragments, feces, and even
photographs have been collected. Are we dealing with fact
or fiction?
If Bigfoot lives, what could it be? Reports are consistent,
dtailing a very large (eight or twelve foot), upright animal.
Its size, hair, and location (in the cold Northwest) all
imply a mammal. Its body shape and locomotion further limit
the possibilities. Possibly it is a bear, but the gait and
footprints are not right. What is left then? A hominoid
of some sort?
Is this possible? In any objective pursuit of knowledge we
must admit that *anything* is possible, but some things are
highly improbable. What kinds of hominoids are native to
the New World? The only definite remains of indigenous
hominoids in
North, Central, or South America are those of
*Homo sapiens* (and these are relatively recent--in the last
20,000 years or so).
If Bigfoot is a hominoid, where did it come from? The
closest fossil primate matching the dimensions of the
fleeting Sasquatches is *Gigantopithecus* . Remains of
this extinct hominoid are well known from the Old World.
Such a big animal has exceedingly large teeth, which
generally have a fairly good chance of being preserved.
From
China alone there are more than 1,000 *Gigantopithecus*
teeth, and this giant hominoid has not roamed the forests of
China for half a million years. It seems very strange,
indeed. If *Gigantopithecus* (or one of its supposed
descendants) is still living, why have we not found any
bones or teeth of this form? If such a large animal has
existed for tens of thousands of years, where is the hard
evidence?
What about the hundreds of sightings? Could they all have
been *faked?* Probably not. Many of these people, no doubt,
saw *something*. Perhaps often they were bears; the
imagination can greatly influence our objectivity when
primed with romantic tales of mythical beasts. What about
footprints, photos, hairs, and fecal material? The prints
(at least many of them) could have been faked, and so too
with the photos (the primary evidence---a 16-mm film taken
in northern California in 1967). Such a circumstance would
suggest an elaborate, deliberate hoax, not a happy conclusion,
but entirely possible (as you will see with Piltdown). The
hairs and fecal material are from some animal, perhaps one
already known, perhaps one yet to be discovered. The
possibility exists that there are large terrestrial mammals
in remote areas of North America unknown to science. Bigfoot
may be such an animal. However, of all the possibilities,
the suggestion that this creature is a hominoid is about the
least likely imaginable.
The conclusion that Bigfoot is an archaic hominoid is therefore
both unlikely and far from conclusively established. But it is
not *completely* impossible. Perhaps descendant populations of
gigantopithecines migrated from
China (through thousands of
miles of environments exceedingly inhospitable to such a
forest-adapted form), ending up in the American Northwest. In
so doing, perhaps they left nary a trace all along the way.
Furthering our improbable conjectures, perhaps they have
existed in North America for at least 500,000 years, without
leaving a single fossil remnant. Finally, perhaps they still
exist today, but deliberately conceal themselves and meticulously
dispose of their dead.
SOURCES:
Napier, John. *Bigfoot; the Yeti and
Sasquatch in Myth and
Reality*,
London: Jonathan Cape, 1972.
Sanderson, Ivan T. *
Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life*,
New York: Chilton Co., 1961.
Shuman, James B. "Is There an American
Abominable Snowman?,"
*
Reader's Digest*, January 1969, pp. 179-186.
Nature finds a way. 
