What Is A Bigfoot?

[Guest]

Same as John's answer, what charged my father fit the description of how a gorilla acts but it didn't look like a gorilla according to him, there was a definite difference. So I don't see a reason why we should have the corner market on bipedalism, I don't think that indicates something human. It's probably something in between, or a chimera. Then again, it might be something not necessarily related to us. Bigfoot might be de-evolving.

[Guest]

I chose ape, the evidence shows that our ancestors have been using stone tools for 3 million years. I don't recall anybody ever finding evidence of a Bigfoot creature using such things. I would also like to add that Homo Erectus had shorter Human like arms as well.

Edited October 9, 2010 by HODS

[Guest Robert]

Actually there are some stories of them using large sticks and small logs as clubs, and even wearing articles of stolen clothes.

It's possible that they don't use fire because their digestive systems are more suited to digesting raw foods, and that they don't want to be located. They probably know that smoke would give them away.

I read one story of one that kept coming into a camp and putting the fire out.

[Guest]

Actually there are some stories of them using large sticks and small logs as clubs, and even wearing articles of stolen clothes.

It's possible that they don't use fire because their digestive systems are more suited to digesting raw foods, and that they don't want to be located. They probably know that smoke would give them away.

I read one story of one that kept coming into a camp and putting the fire out.

Fear of forest fires maybe?

[PBeaton]

My opinion, some form of ape. An without havin' a dictionary within reach, is not a ape simply a tailless monkey ? Thus we are indeed great apes.

Regardin' the foot. If you look at the feet of the great apes, toes an foot shape vary based on both size an time on the ground. Thus sasquatch feet should be somewhat similar to ours, yet still different. Thus the elongated heel, longer toes, mid tarsal break as in the other great apes, thickly padded etc.

Yep, I'd say closer to a gorilla than ourselves. Neat that a chimp is closer to us than it is to a gorilla, so...maybe chimp...

Pat...

[Guest]

I may have to reconsider my original thoughts. Inserting fire into the topic is interesting. I believe it's thought that Homo Erectus was the first to make and use fire, maybe 80,000 years ago? So if Bigfoot falls into the Erectus/Neanderthal category why are they so far behind? You don't hear too many reports of them making fire.

Also, lets say these stick structure shelters that people claim to find are actually a place to live, at least temporarily. If Erectus was making fire so long ago, then they also must of had better built shelters. If Bigfoot is Erectus, he's WAY behind the curve. Which makes me lean more towards an earlier, more primitive species, such as Giganto. But if I recall, nobody has proven that Giganto was bipedal. Still need to find a pelvic bone.

[Guest]

I'd vote for H. Erectus, or some other ancestral species within' the genus, though don't want to imply it's a living fossil but rather a part of the same radiation of intelligent hominin apes that include us, though they are adapted (superbly so) with the physical and intellectual capacity (both instinctive and learned) for a non-social life based on hunting resources over a wide range of choices and habitats.

[Guest]

Some good points made, on the shorter(more human) arm length and fire building capabilities of Homo Erectus. It's hard to imagine, evolution going backwards.

When I look at the choice of "Homo Erectus, Neanderthal or similar", I want to highlight the word "similar". There are other hominids that might fit the match. One, that possibly has yet to be discovered. It's also possibly, that more than one species was involved, spawning the various sizes and forms sighted around the world.

I also hold eyewitness testimony.. as being very valuable, from those that have seen this creature for themselves.

The correct answer, might really be "Other".

[Guest gershake]

Just wondering, what would an "other" be?

[Guest TooRisky]

Some might say that Bigfoot is an "Original Unaltered Human", that idea seems to always be over looked...

[Guest UPs]

I would also say other. If it was an ape, we should have discovered it long ago. As for the question of fire, maybe they do not need fire. UPs

[Sasfooty]

I am what some call an "habituator", but I don't like that name, nor do I consider myself to be one. A better description would be "a neighbor & long term witness".

Anyway, from years of observations, I think they are "other". They are neither animal nor human and comparing them to animals & humans is a useless waste of time.

If they don't use tools or fire, it's because they have no need or desire to, not because they aren't intelligent enough. Anyone that thinks they are below humans in intelligence is sadly mistaken. They go where they want, when they want, & do what they want, and in spite of all our technology, & "intelligence" we can't even get a decent picture of them. Yet we presume in our ignorance that we are somehow superior to them because they are hairy & have long arms & "look like apes".

Actually, a lot of them don't look like apes, but have surprisingly human features & amazing mental powers. Once you have looked into a pair of ones eyes, you will never again think they are "evolving" toward us. We would be fortunate if we could evolve toward them.

[Guest]

Amazing mental powers? Please explain.

[Sasfooty]

Amazing mental powers? Please explain.

I'd rather not.

[BobZenor]

I think they would most likely be something that split off our lineage about 2 to 2.5 million years ago or early in the genus Homo. The distinction of Homo isn't particularly relevant but it is at about the time that hominids apparently made it to Asia or it was shortly after that. There are also a few physical considerations assuming Patty is real and many descriptions of many other sitings are accurate. For example, hominids before that time or the Australopithicus don't have a protruding nose. That also includes a flat nose by the way. They assume protruding when the top of the nasal opening protrudes beyond the bottom. There are other considerations like the seeming relatively small amount of sexual dimorphism. There also seems to be multiple species even very early in Homo. That makes it very difficult to say which is the ancestor of any particular Asian hominid. They are very closely related. There seems to have been a radiation event in early Homo.

Some of the ancestors of bigfoot may well have been found and they would probably be called erectus if they were found in Asia assuming it is a real creature. There isn't anything I know of that makes me doubt that assumption. They would have likely branched off before the erectus that we are apparently descended from even became a species. They would still be called erectus by default if they were found in Asia. They wouldn't be Homo erectus any more than we would be even if they are descended from an early erectus that was in our lineage. It includes such a diverse group that calling it erectus isn't very meaningful.

I seriously doubt that a hominid that lived 2 million years ago would be what a normal person would call a human if they met one on the street. Two million years is a lot of time to evolve into something different than how we turned out. The time of about 2 million years also predates any significant technology and it fits the fossil record of what actually showed up in the fossil record in Asia. It fits nicely to a time when there should have been adaptive radiation going on. It should have been going on because hominids were starting to grow larger brains and because they were starting to expand to new regions. People who think they weren't "ape" enough back then probably don't have any actual valid evidence to base that assumption on. If there is any, I haven't seen it and can't really imagine what it would be.

The fact that tools exist in the environment at that time or later isn't valid evidence when it is already established that a technological hominid apparently existed and that it was logically our ancestor. Assuming the other hominids are equally technological is baseless reasoning. The lack of fossils in Asia is also a very weak argument since many of the characteristics of floresiensis point to something that diverged from our lineage roughly about the time of very early Homo.

I absolutely don't accept the notion that they couldn't have lost technology. It is also a baseless assumption as far as I am concerned but it really isn't relevant to early Homo as a candidate for ancestor of bigfoot. That doesn't even go into the very diverse set of "primitive" features found in some Asian erectus and floresiensis as evidence that they weren't all technological. Why would some Asian erectus have enormous jaw muscles and teeth if they were technological. Why would they have indications of a reduced frontal lobe or a double sagittal crest. I see this as a biological question and I think it is wise to not get stuck on labels that really don't necessarily mean much. What is called erectus in Asia most likely represents multiple species and some that are descended from creatures that split off from us well before 2 million years ago so you could say I think they probably weren't descended from what should be called erectus. I wasn't the one who decided they needed to name all Asian hominids erectus. That has changed recently by the way by most paleoanthropologists but the term erectus is still used as a very broad category by many. It has to do with the difficulty in establishing species and the amount of variability that it might have. It allows pretty much any fairly closely related hominid to be called erectus. They claimed that floresiensis was descended from erectus for example. Later studies put that in doubt but probably no other Asian hominid besides modern human fossils had nearly that complete a skeleton. If it were just a skull, it would still be descended from erectus...

Edited October 11, 2010 by BobZenor