Wolf boy or bigfoot?

[Captain Hook]

It's a huge question for the scientific and monkey loving world, is bigfoot man or ape?, some theories are suggesting the big hairy fella is just a wolf boy

it has been proven by one amature scientist what do you guys think?

[CountAntonio]

though i do believe in evolution i dont believe a missing link still exist. Could have just been some freakishly deformed ape....

[Gav]

It's a huge question for the scientific and monkey loving world, is bigfoot man or ape?, some theories are suggesting the big hairy fella is just a wolf boy

it has been proven by one amature scientist what do you guys think?

So you believe the cryptozooligsts?

It's is extremely unlikely, doubly so for places like the US, that a 'bigfoot' of any description exists.

There are no little green men sticking objects up peoples bottoms either.

[Morion]

I think you should check with the experts at the Weekly World News!

http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/

[Gav]

Who?

Quick browse later ...

So that's what they call science?

[EpeeBunney]

There are no little green men sticking objects up peoples bottoms either.

Of course not they are more of a blue/grey colour.

[BrianH]

It's is extremely unlikely, doubly so for places like the US, that a 'bigfoot' of any description exists.

I don't know why 'doubly so' for the US...here in the NW corner, we have huge tracts of heavily forested virtually uninhabited mountains extending into British Columbia that could hide all sorts of fascinating creatures. I don't know if Bigfoot exists, but it makes the world more interesting just to have the possibility.

If it exists, I would guess Bigfoot is a descendent of the fossil Gigantopithecus, which would make it an apelike form rather than human. Fossils of Gigantopithecus have so far been found only in Asia, but that doesn't mean much in terms of their general distribution.

[Gav]

It'd be nice. And you'd get a big fat "F- me I never expected that!" if I turned out to be wrong. The chances are remote. Less than remote in fact.

Fact is that, like Nessie, the Yeti (Bigfoot's cousin) and the abominable snowman (Bigfoot's 2nd cousin) are simple folk tales. We like to take money off tourists so it's nice to have something to tell them when they drop in to pick up a nice man-skirt.

Now Hobbits .... they do exist. I saw this programme on telly (no not LOTR - a documentary) where this guy went to some remote island looking for a "rare dwarf human species" and didn't find any. What he did find was a tribe of ultra tiny people. Actually it was just the males - who were mostly in the region of 4' - curiously the women were normal sized. Apparently there's not many left and they swore blind that the 'really small people' did exist ... somewhere in the jungle. They even said (via interpreters) that it was really strange that, "these white guys are so tall."

Personally I think that's more interesting, wierd, and downright intriguing than monster stories.

I'm trying to find a link to the programme - but unfortunately I can't. The presenter even looked like a pirate - he was wearing an eyepatch (I'm not kidding or making this up).

The programme was called somthing like "In search of Dragons, Unicorns and Hobbits".

And i'm not talking about these guys either.

[BrianH]

And i'm not talking about these guys either.

That's a good point, Gav. I would have said the chances of finding something like Homo floresiensis was pretty far-fetched, too. But there they are, in Indonesia. Much more tangible than a folk-tale.

I don't 'believe' in Bigfoot but, even though skeptical, I wouldn't reject its existence out of hand. You could say I'm agnostic on the subject.

[lochinvar]

I'd be very interested in knowing why they've classified this new discovery (Homo floresiensis) in the genus Homo. Yes, it's a hominid, and yes, it's fairly late as these things go, but I don't--from the cursory evidence presented--see how this find differs significantly from Australopithicus afarensis, known more familiarly as "Lucy". Lucy was also fully bipedal but only had a brain the size of a softball and stood approximately 4 ft. tall. (Granted she's about 2 million years old rather than 13,000, but that shouldn't matter to the taxonomy.)

I'll have to do some more research. How exciting!

Oh, and you know you're a redneck if you wake up in the next county one morning and can't remember how many aliens it took to get you there.

As for 'bigfoot'--I'll believe it when I see some physical evidence.

[BrianH]

I'd be very interested in knowing why they've classified this new discovery (Homo floresiensis) in the genus Homo.

Probably because of evidence of complex tool manufacture and use, hunting, and the use of fire for cooking. I haven't seen any figures, but I would guess the brain weight:body weight ratio is higher than for A. afarensis. The calvarium appears to be higher and more rounded, and the face is beneath rather than in front of the cranium. (Judging from photos, of course.) There are a number of anatomical traits that would also be considered, but you're right, the time scale should not enter into the taxonomy.

It would be interesting to examine the interior of the cranial vault to see what markings are left from the folding of the brain, and it's the architecture of the brain that makes a difference in intelligence, not absolute size.

[Fencergrl]

Now Hobbits .... they do exist. I saw this programme on telly (no not LOTR - a documentary) where this guy went to some remote island looking for a "rare dwarf human species" and didn't find any. What he did find was a tribe of ultra tiny people. Actually it was just the males - who were mostly in the region of 4' - curiously the women were normal sized. Apparently there's not many left and they swore blind that the 'really small people' did exist ... somewhere in the jungle. They even said (via interpreters) that it was really strange that, "these white guys are so tall."

Bah... I don't have to go to some remote island to see wee little people. I was looking at some old family photos of my grown aunts and uncles. They looked normal until you see the window sill in the background. My mom was 4'-6", and she was the tall one.

[Black Jeebus]

Personally I think this is a bit of a silly thread since humans are classified as one of the four great apes...

[RITFencing]

What about Manbearpig?

[latenight]

So you believe the cryptozooligsts?.

There are no little green men sticking objects up peoples bottoms either.

Hey, wait a minute.....I don't even have a web cam.....