Bigfoot Feet, 3 Or 4 Toes?

[Twist]

As most know there are reports of Bigfoot having both 3 toes, I believe primarily in the southeast and 5 toes in the rest of the Americas. Im not sure if there are any accounts of 4 toes. I'm curious as to why we would have this variation.

There are roughly 260 known monkey species and as far as I know only one has anything but a 5/5 finger/toe count, that is the spider monkey with 4/5 finger/toe count. I believe all apes do have a 5/5 finger/toe count.

If there were one known case of a Bigfoot having 3 toes I could chalk that up to a genetic disorder however a whole demographic displaying this trait makes me wonder. Could this be a case of some time ago the bf population in this area was hunted or brought to the verge of extinction and a genetic anomaly has been passed along by the select few that carried this trait and passed it along?

[MIB]

3 toes ... I think comes down to a few possibilities.

 

1) As you suggest, a very small population .. genetic bottleneck .. inbreeding and mutation.

2) Witness mistakes

3) Track anomalies ... toes curled up so they don't leave marks or something of that nature.

4) Something seen that is bigfoot-like in appearance but is not bigfoot.   By this I mean paranormal entities .. ET, interdimensional, etc. 

 

I think the 4th is the least likely but can't be eliminated .. at least not yet.

 

MIB

[norseman]

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ostrich-people-zimbabwe

[JDL]

I was surfing Native American oral histories one day and ran into a site I haven't been able to find again since.  It was a Southeastern US tribe.  Gal interviewing her grandfather before he died in the 70's.  She asked about bigfoot and he said something to the effect of "Oh, you ask about the 'Them'?  Yes, they are real, and there used to be many more of them.  When the Europeans brought their diseases 'They' were hurt even more than we were. They were hurt so badly that for many generations we believed that they had died out completely."  All paraphrased to the best of my recollection.

 

If the account is true, then it could explain a genetic bottleneck in the Southeastern US beginning about 500 years ago.

 

It would be consistent.  Spanish explorers in the early 1500s moving Northwest along the river valleys from the Gulf Coast and Southeastern US coast, reported heavily populated, culturally complex agrarian Native American communities every few miles along the rivers.  A hundred and fifty years later, English and French explorers reported very sparse populations and evidence of an earlier advanced culture that bore little resemblance to the contemporary hunter gatherer culture that they found.

[Guest Crowlogic]

Why aren't we seeing this stuff in Mountain Gorillas there's a lot less of a breeding population in a smaller area than the entire lower 48 states bigfoot gets reported in?  

[SWWASAS]

Most likely because of the difference in breeding behavior between BF and mountain gorillas?.      Over 60% of mountain gorillas leave their natal group and move to or form other groups.    Males gorillas tend to have harems.    This difference could result in more genetic diversity.      On the other hand if sighting reports are true, the pockets BF in places like the SE could result in very little chance for genetic diversity by movement between groupls and result on three toes and other genetic deformities.    We know little about the breeding behavior of BF but family structures have been reported.    In places like the PNW there are likely enough BF to provide sufficient BF to allow genetic diversity and reduce genetic deformity due to inbreeding so things like feet deformity are not as common.     http://www.therainforests.info/animals/mountain-gorilla.html

[Guest Crowlogic]

^^^Oh I see.  Have you any idea of how monstrously inbred a population needs to be to devolve from 5 toes to three toes?  

 

Let's just use real life examples of inbred animals.  Zoo Tigers getting blue eyes and loosing the orange in fur pigmentation.....no gaining or losing of their basic anatomy though.  Pure bred dogs, cats and horses retain the appendage  count of their wide bred cousins.  Is there any instance at all of inbreeding resulting in such a drastic morphing of 5 toes into 3 in mammals?

[JDL]

It may be that three-toed bigfoot are viewed as undesirable mates by external populations, perpetuating the inbreeding.

[SWWASAS]

Crow:    All it takes is one to have the anomaly and it's progeny would likely carry the trait.     Have you ever heard of Australia?    That is a good example of a cut off population with strange genetic abnormalities and equally strange animals that do not exist on any other continent.     Of course since you have not personally seen a platypus you probably do not believe in them either.  

 

You ask for a reason for something then reject a perfectly plausible scientifically viable answer.    But since your initial argument was just another thinly veiled attempt to discredit and ridicule the existence of BF, it is no surprise that you reject a answer to the original post that started this thread.     And I suppose that now you will try to highjack this thread like you do with every other one you respond to with your denialist mantra.    The members of the forum are getting sick of it and I think the administration has noticed.   .   

Edited November 14, 2015 by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT

[Twist]

From what I have read, there are few actual casts of 3 toed prints. Possibly it is just one fmaily or bloodline carrying a genetic abnormality. So perhaps there are say, only say 6 total that have this and those are the ones responsible for the prints??? I've read a number of reports from the SE that never adress toes to begin with, either they don't notice or there are 5 toes.

[SWWASAS]

An abormal number of digits is not a rare thing at all in humans.    And one cannot say that is the result of isolation and inbreeding in humans when 1 in 500 live births may involve abnormal numbers of digits.        We are not aware of cases of extra digits because in developed countries they are normally removed so that the child has a normal number of digits growing up.     There are a number of famous people who have this condition.       https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydactyly

 

http://topyaps.com/top-10-famous-people-with-extra-fingers-or-toes

[Guest]

I heard of a 3 toe track in relation to southern "apes", which reports seem to denote to me something rather more along the lines of Orang or Giganto lineage, and interestingly the orang type foot with a side thumb type of big toe, since it retains more vestige of branch walking, the other toes will divide in pairs, annnd in marshy or other wet ground, which oft seems to be the favored habitat of these types, it would look 3 toed, due to the pairs of toes not marking distinctly. Yah, I'm saying that, they're walking with their feet giving Mr Spocks, live long and prosper.

[jayjeti]

Twist, three toes, primarily in the southeast makes sense since some researchers have claimed that alligator forearms and three toes are being misidentified as a three toed bigfoot print.  They southeastern U.S. is where we find swamps and alligators.  Examples of impressions left in the mud from an alligator forearm and its 3 toes have been noted as misidentification, and  I wonder if there are no three toed sasquatches period.

 

Maybe as someone already noted, abnormal births can produce a percentage of fewer digits, and that could account for the four toes.  And I wonder if the positioning of the toes could make it appear like four toes.  I could be wrong but I have doubts there is a race of sasquatches that has a different number of toes.

[SWWASAS]

The other possibility is that the BF was born with the proper amount of toes and that injury, disease, or snake bite made some toes fall off.

[Guest]

Yes jayjeti, in the early squatchsploitation era there were definitely some highly spurious alligatory looking casts and photos turning up.