Read more: “10 biggest puzzles of human evolution“
LEGENDS of human-like creatures, such as Bigfoot, the Yeti and the Yowie have entranced people for centuries. They make for good stories, but could there be any truth in them?
It seems unlikely. Recently, Jeff Lozier at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa examined the location of all Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, sightings. He found that these “haunts” are identical to those of the black bear, suggesting it could simply be a case of mistaken identity (). “I’ve never seen anything that has convinced me,” adds David Coltman at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, who recently analysed a tuft of hair from a supposed Bigfoot to find that it came from a bison. Coltman concedes that new species of primate are occasionally found in remote regions, so there is a slim chance that there may be something out there. “But it’s very unlikely that they could fly under the radar for so long.”
Advertisement
Nevertheless, a few scientists are willing to contemplate the idea that Homo sapiens is not alone. Jeffrey Meldrum at Idaho State University in Pocatello, points out that other hominin species coexisted alongside our ancestors for most of human history. That’s not all. Our family tree can still surprise us, as happened with the discovery of Homo floresiensis, aka the “hobbit”, nine years ago. This pint-sized hominin lived on the Indonesian island of Flores until 18,000 years ago. Just two years ago came another surprise when genetic analysis revealed a previously unknown species, the Denisovans, living in Siberia around 40,000 years ago (91av, 30 July 2011, p 34).
“7% Denisovan genes in Melanesians”
Meldrum finds it easy to imagine that small groups of our cousins could be clinging on in remote areas such as the Himalayas and the Caucasus. They could even be a bit closer to home. In 1996, he heard reports of 38-centimetre-long, ape-like tracks in the Blue mountain forests of Oregon. He arrived expecting to see a poor hoax, but the prints showed an extraordinary level of anatomical detail. The toes were flexed at certain locations but more relaxed at others, for instance, as if the animal had been running for some stretches of its journey. Such details would be very difficult to fabricate, Meldrum says. “I’m not trying to convince people of the existence of the Sasquatch, but we shouldn’t turn our back on the possibility.”
