Study Shows Sasquatch Intelligence Impossible Without Fire.

[BobZenor]

Those kind of studies are where they erroneously make the conclusion that something that had happened is the only way that it could happen. One says we couldn't evolve larger brains unless we lost the sagittal crest. Others say that our brains couldn't grow larger until they ate the marrow in scavenged bones. It is typical of the sort of arguments made by people that seem to have very little understanding of evolutionary biology. They are shamelessly trying to elevate their area of study to something monumentally important when it probably wasn't. Humans that eat only raw food have just as large a brain as do people that don't eat bone marrow. You would think that would occur to them. Certainly the higher calories makes it easier to support a larger brain but to say it is a requirement is just wild speculation.

[salubrious]

"By cooking, we managed to circumvent the limitation of how much we can eat in a day."

http://news.sciencem...l#disqus_thread

If the study stands I think that this is a very big blow to the entire concept of a giant wild primate able to live undetected in North America.

Cooking has been shown to be unhealthy for modern humans (see: "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration", by Dr. Weston Price). But we do it anyway because we like the taste. For example: eggs. How many here eat raw eggs? It was common 100 years ago but now we think its unsafe. Its not, but its an uphill battle to convince most people of that simple fact.

Some people do have an enzyme that allows them to digest cooked food more easily. Most people's digestion relys on the autoimmune system if they don't have the enzyme mutation, which has only appeared the last 40,000 years or so.

More importantly, there are people who have seen the creature, thus the 'blow' does not exist- it has been detected. Just not acknowledged. There is a huge difference.

[Guest Transformer]

Exactly how does cooking make it possible to eat more? That is not clear to me at all. Say what? I can see it might make it more nutririous....on the other hand why limit foraging to 7 to 8 hours? Wouldn't diet changes make more sense as a factor to intelligence than cooking food? Fattier foods, meat v only veggies, hunting techniques, clilmate......way too many other variables.

Once again, cooking allows for the highly efficient conversion of food to energy during digestion. Variables in diet are of little consequence overall if one is discussing naturally occurring calories and real digestive systems found in primates. A human brain uses about 20% of our body's energy WHILE RESTING! If you are constantly foraging you are using more energy than what you are getting in. You have to rest because you cannot keep up your caloric needs without resting. Plus, you have to digest what you already have in your system before you put more in.

[Guest poignant]

So you are saying let's just invent things that do not exist in any known primate or possibly in any known mammal or may be just impossible period. Why not just say it's magic as an answer to any difficult question?

Enzymatic adaption to diet is not magic.

The article still did not address the locomotive efficiency of bipedalism.

[Guest BFSleuth]

Enzymatic adaption to diet is not magic.

Indeed.

This adaptation happens fairly continuously even within our own bodies within our own lifespan if we have any dietary changes or health changes. Our gut ecosystem is dynamic.

[Guest Transformer]

What a silly study! Other apes ARE intelligent! Maybe not compared to us, but they sure know how to hide from humans when they want to. It takes even the most EXPERIENCED TRACKERS to find mountian gorillas in the wild. And if the ability to learn sign language isn't intelligent (see: Koko), then I don't know what is!

Actually the great apes are pretty easy to find and there are conservation efforts encouraged and put in place because of poaching. Dianne Fossy was killed by poachers because of her interference with their activities. The claimed intelligence and language abilities of Koko are pretty controversial. Even given the supposed extent of her learning it still puts her at about the intelligence level of a 30 month old human child at the most.

[Guest Twilight Fan]

Like I said, apes aren't AS intelligent as we are, but to be able to communicate with us shows a TON of intelligence, for an animal.

[Guest Transformer]

Enzymatic adaption to diet is not magic.

The article still did not address the locomotive efficiency of bipedalism.

Please point out what enzymes that are now known that would accomplish this in a primates gut. Then explain the evolutionary adaptions that would cause them to be there. The number of neurons that a human has in its brain requires 20% of the total energy produced WHILE RESTING! Locomotion is such a small part of the equation it is moot.

[Guest poignant]

More importantly, there are people who have seen the creature, thus the 'blow' does not exist- it has been detected. Just not acknowledged. There is a huge difference.

Yes, and after the body is brought in, we can finally examine it to see how it has adapted to living in temperate climes.

Fact is, it MAKES SENSE for a large primate to go bipedal, otherwise the time and energy cost for moving and foraging will severely limit its size and habitat.

[Guest thermalman]

^^I would agree TF. I've played sports with some pretty big hairy guys, not only can they communicate, they can also feed themselves......LOL

Edited October 26, 2012 by thermalman

[Guest Transformer]

Like I said, apes aren't AS intelligent as we are, but to be able to communicate with us shows a TON of intelligence, for an animal.

But nowhere near enough intelligence to what a sasquatch is credited with or must have to avoid detection as a species.

[BobbyO]

If the study stands I think that this is a very big blow to the entire concept of a giant wild primate able to live undetected in North America.

More fool you.

[ShadowBorn]

This study does not mean much at all,since these creature have been seen around camp fires. Even in our sightings there has been times where we have found burned out sticks carried off from our pit. So they do have some curiosity to fire and how it is made. But even us as humans have eaten raw meat at one time. Surviving in the wild is a lost art that us as human have lost ,but these creatures still live by that art.we cannot compare our intelligence with them until we live the way they do.

[Guest Transformer]

Indeed.

This adaptation happens fairly continuously even within our own bodies within our own lifespan if we have any dietary changes or health changes. Our gut ecosystem is dynamic.

The only enzymes in our system are the ones that we were born with. We may lose some or overproduce some due to disease or system malfunction but we do not spontaneously produce new or varied enzymes because of any change in diet.

[Guest]

Transformer- from what I understand having seen a program on PBS is that humans statred developing larger brains when they became more carnivorius.

Something about protein that was responsible. One website you may want to check out is the non-human rights.org site, they have articles about how animals are classified and in the BF it would seem how the BF would be able to obtain "personage" and how that system works.