Bigfoot
- This article is about Bigfoot, the cryptid. For the monster truck, see Bigfoot (truck).
Bigfoot is a large creature said to inhabit 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 name is Sasquatch, derived from a Northwest Coast Native American term.
Along with the Loch Ness Monster and Yeti, Bigfoot is perhaps the most famous cryptid in Cryptozoology.
While Bigfoot may or may not exist, a Bigfoot culture of mostly amateur researchers is active. Some professionals have deemed such groups worthy of study as a movement or subculture.
Most mainstream scientists have found existing Sasquatch evidence unpersuasive, and consider such evidence and sightings the product of mythology, folklore, misidentification or hoaxes. Some professionals and academics have argued that 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 tall, broad shouldered and strongly built. The head is small and pointed; 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.
Arguments against
- In Northern Europe there was formerly a parallel belief in Trolls, which some have suggested is similar to Bigfoot legends.
- Many claims of eyewitness sightings have been made, and both home movies and photographs said to be of Bigfoot exist, although they are generally of poor quality. There are also audio recordings of purported sasquatches.
- 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. Wallace's assertions are often considered a serious blow against Bigfoot claims to the casual observer. However, Ray was well-known as a hoaxer to those in the Bigfoot community; therefore they do not take either his claims or his family's seriously.
- Most of the areas where Bigfoot has been reported are near habitats of bears, notably including the Grizzly Bear. Grizzly bears are large and furry, and occasionally stand up on their hind legs, prompting the suggestion that many of the "Bigfoot" sightings were in fact bears. Some reports, however, originate with people familiar with bears, who claim that what they saw was not a bear.
- 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. Some have accepted Wallace's claims and consider the film phony, while others have refuted Wallace's statements.
- 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. In an October 26, 1997 interview with Bigfoot researcher Bobbie Short, Chambers denied any knowledge of the Patterson film before its public exposure, and further denied any involvement in a hoax. Chambers stated he was good at his craft, but "not that good" when it came to creating such a purported disguise. (Loren Coleman & Jerome Clark, Cryptozoology A to Z, p 56)
- Curiously, the creature 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 theory (perhaps more correctly termed 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 Gigantopithicus is the common ancestor of two quadrupedal genera, represented by the sivapithecus and the Orangutan. 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 view is that Gigantopithecus walked on all fours as a quadruped like an Orangutan or sivapithecus, not as a biped as Bigfoot is said to be, and the enormous mass of Gigantopithicus would have made it difficult for it to adopt a bipedal gait. 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 have been many reported "sightings", but no physical evidence for the existence of Bigfoot: no dead bodies, bones, faeces, artifacts or fur. 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 Bigfoot´s absence.
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.
- 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. 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 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 Himalayas. 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, leading analysts to categorize samples as "unknown."
- 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.
- 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
