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This is a guest post by Shawn O'Steen. Shawn is currently finishing degrees in Theology and Psychology. Prior to this, he studied Anthropology and Fish & Wildlife Science at Oregon State. He has also studied Civil Engineering, Cartography, GIS, & Geomatics. Shawn resides in Souther Mississippi with his wife and 3 children.


 
Much has been written, and many hypotheses posited about the potential origins of the legendary Sasquatch of North America.  These guesses have ranged from aliens (Ruehl, 2012) to Biblical giants (Morehead, 2013), ancient giant apes that escaped extinction (Krantz, 1999), a separate branch on the same evolutionary tree that humans are said to have come from (Morehead, 2014), or perhaps a surviving relict population of some already discovered ancestral fossil hominin.  In fact, the Russian Almas in the Caucasus Mountains has been long suggested to be a relict population of Neanderthals (Shackley, 1986).
I have written this post in response to another blog post suggesting that Bigfoot in the Eastern U. S. are also Neanderthals (Drinnon, 2014), and are likely not directly related to the much larger Sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest.  Some of the reasoning behind this hypothesis is that Eastern Bigfoot seem to average less in height (around 7 feet tall) than their Western counterparts (around 8 feet tall for adult males), are much less bulky, and seem to have a flatter, more human-like face.  This information was gathered from a vast number of sightings reports from all across the country, after which the differences were noticed (bfro.com, gcbro.com).

Above sketch by Scott Marlowe from the site floridaskunkape.com. Scott is very knowledgeable and has written many excellent books on a variety of cryptozoological subjects.

I will demonstrate clearly why Bigfoot or Sasquatch-like creatures on the North American continent are definitely not Neanderthals by comparing the morphology of Neanderthals with Sasquatch reports as well as with modern humans, and then I will review what we know about the DNA of all 3 so far to further demonstrate the fallacy of this hypothesis.

First, I’ll describe, per the average sighting report (again, see bfro.com and gcbro.com), the average adult male Eastern Bigfoot:

1) He is 7 feet tall
2) He is 300-350 lbs. minimum (Shaq O’Neil is 7 feet tall and just over 300 lbs., and he doesn’t look overly massive unless he is standing next to an average sized person)
3) He has a 15-16” foot
4) He appears to have no neck
5) He is very massive with wide shoulders
6) He does not have an overly sized head for his body
7) He demonstrates no ability to make or use fire or tools, and demonstrates no culture that has not been observed in living non-human primates.

Now, I’ll describe the average adult modern American male:

1) He is 5’ 9.5” tall
2) He is 180 lbs.
3) He has an 11” foot
4) He has an obvious neck
5) He is delicately built compared to all other apes and ancestral hominins
6) His head is not overly large for his body, compared to other primates (Center for Disease Control, 2012)


Lastly, I’ll describe the average Neanderthal male, according to data gathered in 2010 from all the measurable remains available:

1) He is 5’6” tall, shorter than modern man and much, much shorter than a Bigfoot (H., 1998).
2) He is 160 lbs., much less than the average modern human, and less than half that of what a healthy Sasquatch is estimated to be (Churchill & Froehle, 2009).
3) He has a 9” foot
4) He has an obvious neck
5) He is massively built with very thick bones, short legs that are naturally bowed, arms that are longer than his legs but which are still short, wide shoulders, and wide hips, all making his body look very short, thick, and blocky.
6) His head is huge compared to his body.  He does not have a sagittal crest, but he has massive jaws, a thick brow ridge, a huge nose, and most obviously a massive occipital bun (back part of the skull) that extends rearward giving him a cranial capacity far greater than our own (O'Neil, 2011)
7) He is very adept at fire and tool creation and use, and has a culture demonstrating religion and art.
8) He carries a variant of the MC1R gene that is not present in humans, and which produces red hair and fair skin that is very sensitive to sunlight (Rincon, 2007).

The photo on the above left demonstrates how much larger the average modern adult male human is than the average adult Neanderthal, while the photo on the right demonstrates how much larger the skull of the Neanderthal is than that of the modern human. Photos are from Mathilda's Anthropology Blog.

The above photos, all taken from Wikipedia Commons, demonstrate the great difference in size and shape between the skulls of Neanderthals and modern humans. Keep in mind that the skulls in the bottom photo are not presented at the same angle. Note the significant prognathism in the Neanderthal skull, along with the very large occupital bun. The top right picture shows a very good comparison between the size and shape of the two species.

Now I’ll cover the DNA evidence.  Regardless of what you think about Dr. Ketchum’s study, there is no doubt that all the viable samples returned human mtDNA (Ketchum, 2013).  As a reminder, mtDNA is only passed down by the mother, so in order to have human mtDNA (other than through contamination) you MUST have a human female in your ancestry.  Many other samples that were tested prior to and after her study have returned results with human mtDNA as well.  We know that she also tested NuDNA, but that doesn’t figure in to this post.

NuDNA testing is expensive, and until the past few years it was ridiculously expensive, so all the DNA tests done on Neanderthal remains only tested mtDNA.  Based on those results, it was thought that we were not related to Neanderthals at all, because Neanderthal mtDNA contained NO DNA in common with us (later NuDNA showed non-Africans likely possess 1-4% of our genes in common with them, [Green, 2010]).  If you couple the fact that alleged Bigfoot mtDNA is nearly identical to human mtDNA, and Neanderthal mtDNA is nothing like human mtDNA, then there is virtually no chance that Eastern Bigfoot are relict Neanderthals.

That, my friends, is as close as we can get to the Null Hypothesis in regard to relict Neanderthals and Bigfoot within reasonable parameters (Zimmer, 2014).

~Shawn


References
Center for Disease Control. (2012). Anthropometric Data for Children and Adults: United States, 2007-2010. Waashington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office.
Churchill, S. E., & Froehle, A. W. (2009). Energetic Competition Between Neandertals and Anatomically Modern Humans. The Paleoanthropology Society, 96-116.
Drinnon, D. (2014, April 28). Eastern Bigfoot/Neanderthal Skull Comparison. Retrieved from Frontiers of Anthropology: http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com.tr/2014/04/eastern-bigfoot-neanderthal-skull.html
H., H. (1998). Body Height, Body Mass and Surface Area of the Neanderthals. National Center for Biotechnology Information, 1-12. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9850627
Ketchum, M. (2013). Novel North American Hominins, Next Generation Sequencing of Three Whole Genomes and Associated Studies. DeNovo Journal of Science.
Krantz, G. S. (1999). Bigfoot Sasquatch evidence. Surrey, B. C.: Hancock House Publishers, Ltd.
Morehead, R. (2013, June 3). The Nephilim Theory. Retrieved from The Bigfoot Recordings: http://www.bigfootsounds.com/the-nephilim-theory/
Morehead, R. (2014, June 22). Bigfoot Evolution and Creation Hypothesis. Retrieved from The Bigfoot Recordings: http://www.bigfootsounds.com/bigfoot-evolution-creation-hypothesis/
Rincon, P. (2007, October 25). Neanderthals 'were flame-haired'. Retrieved from BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7062415.stm
Ruehl, F. P. (2012, June 7). Is Bigfoot Possibly an Alien Entity? Retrieved from Huffington Post Weird: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-franklin-ruehl-phd/is-bigfoot-possibly-an-alien_b_1578844.html
Shackley, M. (1986). Still Living? Yeti, Sasquatch, and the Neanderthal Enigma. New York: W W Norton & Co., Inc.
Zimmer, C. (2014, August 7). Why We Can't Rule Out Bigfoot. Retrieved from Nautilus: http://nautil.us/issue/16/nothingness/why-we-cant-rule-out-bigfoot
 O'Neil, D. D. (2011, November 9). Evolution of Modern Humans: Neanderthals. Retrieved November 16, 2011, from EVOLUTION OF MODERN HUMANS: A Survey of the Biological and Cultural Evolution: http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/mod_homo_2.htm
Richard E. Green, e. a. (2010, May 6). A Draft Sequencing of the Neanderthal Genome. Retrieved November 18, 2011, from Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology: http://www.eva.mpg.de/neandertal/press/presskit-neandertal/pdf/Science_Green.pdf






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Almas

Almas -
Also Almasty and Albasty.
The Almas (Mongolian: Алмас/Almas, Bulgarian: Алмас, Chechen: Алмазы, Turkish: Albıs), Mongolian for "wild man", is a purported hominid cryptozoological species reputed to inhabit the Caucasus and Pamir Mountains of central Asia, and the Altai Mountains of southern Mongolia.

Other names by which these creatures are known, depending on the particular region, are 'Wind-Man', Abnuaaya, Bekk-Bok, Biabin-Guli, Gul-Biavan, Guli-Avan, Golub-Yavan, Kaptar, Kra-Dhan, Ksy-Giik or Ksy Gyik, Mirygdy, Mulen and Voita.

Almases are typically described as human-like bipedal animals, between five and six and a half feet tall, their bodies covered with reddish-brown hair, with anthropomorphic facial features including a pronounced browridge, flat nose, and a  receding chin. Many cryptozoologists believe there is a similarity between these descriptions and modern reconstructions of how Neanderthals might have appeared.

1420 - The first known printed reference on the Almas was made by a Bavarian named Hans Schiltberger. He traveled through the Tien Shan mountains as a captive to the Mongols. During his imprisonment he kept a journal in which he wrote:
"In the mountains themselves live a wild people, who have nothing in common with other human beings, a pelt covers the entire body of these creatures. Only the hands and face are free of hair. They run around in the hills like animals and eat foliage and grass and whatever else they can find. The Lord of the Territory made Egidi a present of a couple of forest people, a man and a woman, together with three untamed horses the sizes of asses and all sorts of other animals which are not found in German lands and which I cannot therefore put a name to."

1807-1867 - Sightings reported at Khalkha, the Galbin Gobi and Dzakh Soudjin Gobi as well as in Inner Mongolia; also at the Gourban Bogdin Gobi, Chardzyn Gobi and the Alachan desert.

In the mid 1800s  a wild woman who was named Zana is said to have lived in the isolated mountain village of T'khina fifty miles from Sukhumi in Abkhazia in the Caucasus; some have speculated she may have been an Almas. According to accounts, she was very physically powerful, able to perform feats of exceptional strength. Zana, at first was violent towards her captors but soon became domesticated and assisted with simple household chores. While in captivity, Zana was passed on through a succession of owners and mothered several hybrid children. According to the story, she had as many as 6 offspring, by different men, with a total of 4 surviving with the help of the local village women. According to reports the children were fairly normal, except for being dark and physically powerful. The 4 children were assimilated into normal society, married, and had families of their own  One of the male children, Khwit, remains namely the skull was examined by Dr. Grover Krantz in the early 1990s. He pronounced it to be entirely modern, with no Neanderthal features at all.  Zana, herself  died sometime in the 1890.

In the 2013 a documentary, Bigfoot Files, Professor Bryan Sykes of the University of Oxford showed that Zana's DNA was 100% Sub-Saharan African in origin and she could have been a slave brought to Abkhazia by the Ottoman Empire Prof. Sykes did however raise questions as to whether Zana could have been from a population of Africans who left the continent tens of thousands of years earlier as her son, Khwit's skull had some very unique and archaic characteristics.

There is much more to the tale of Zana and her offspring, I invite others to research and come to their own conclusions.

Myra Shackley and Bernard Heuvelmans have speculated that the Almases are a relict population of Neanderthals, while Loren Coleman suggests surviving specimens of Homo erectus. They have been connected to the Denisova hominin. Descriptions of Almases are similar to that of the Yeti of the Himalayas.

Name: Almas
Similar to: Bigfoot, Orang Pendek, Batutut,Yeti
Location: Central Asia
Movement: Bi-pedal
Size: 5-6 and half Feet tall
Photos/Videos: None

Most of this information comes from Wikipedia and there is very little I have added to the post. As for the photo used, I do not know who the original artist is or who to give credit to. There is much more tales of the Almas and sighting reports than I have included here.
Thanks
~Tom~
[sources: Wikipedia, crystalinks]



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Batutut -
The Batutut or Ujit or Người rừng, sometimes also known as "forest people", is a proposed hominid cryptid, reputedly similar to the bigfoot, thought to inhabit the Vũ Quang  nature reserve and other wilderness areas of Vietnam, Laos and northern Borneo. The Vũ Quang has been the source of a number of newly discovered mammals by Dr. John MacKinnon. Mackinnon claims to have first observed tracks in 1970 that led him to believe that a hominid similar to the Meganthropus lives there. Mackinnon's 1975 book In Search Of The Red Ape describes his experiences and findings. A 1947 sighting by a French colonist refers to the animal as a L'Homme Sauvage (wild man). Vietnamese scholars refer to the animal as the Người Rừng ("forest man").


Map of  Vu Quang National Park

It is described as being approximately 1.8 m (6 ft) tall and covered with hair except in the knees, the soles of the feet, the hands, and the face. The hair ranges in color from gray to brown to black. The creature walks on two legs and has been reported both solitary and moving in small groups. The creature is most often sighted foraging for food from fruits and leaves to langers and even flying foxes.
In Borneo, witnesses describe it as four feet tall and very aggressive, occasionally killing humans and tearing out their livers.

 Ccryptozoologist Loren Coleman believes that the Batutut are a surviving population of Homo erectus or Neanderthal and this could be possible. The Vũ Quang and wilderness of Vietnam is rather large and still somewhat unexplored.

Sightings -
In his book Very Crazy G.I. - Strange but True Stories of the Vietnam War, Kregg P. J. Jorgenson relates a sighting of such a creature by a team of US soldiers. The men referred to it as a "Rock Ape" reporting it as being small in stature, about 5 feet tall and having a reddish tinge to its fur.
Two Người Rừngs were reportedly captured by tribesmen near Dak Lak Province in 1971. In 1974 a North Vietnamese general, Hoang Minh Thao, requested an expedition to find evidence of the creatures, but it was unsuccessful.

In 1918 a hunter, Mr. Van Heerwarden found some odd human type tracks but never seen what or who made them. In 1923, Mr. Van Heerwarden found these human type tracks again and followed them. He followed the prints until he spotted a wild man in a tree: "I discovered a dark and hairy creature on a branch. ... The sedapa was also hairy on the front of its body; the colour there was a little lighter than on the back. The very dark hair on its head fell to just below the shoulder-blades or even almost to the waist....Had it been standing, its arms would have reached to a little above its knees; they were therefore long, but its legs seemed to me rather short. I did not see its feet, but I did see some toes which were shaped in a very normal manner. ... There was nothing repulsive or ugly about its face, nor was it at all apelike". The above quote is from Abominable Snowmen, by Ivan T. Sanderson. Abominable Snowmen is available on Kindle - get it now by Clicking Here!

More recently the now canceled TV show Destination Truth made a trip to look for Batutut. Josh Gates and his team went to Vietnam and found large human type footprints and also managed to filmed a possible Batutut with a thermal imager.
Here is a clip of it.

Gates and his team made a casting of the humanlike tracks and took them to be examined by noted Bigfoot researcher, anthropologist Jeff Meldrum.  Meldrum called the print "a significant discovery" and one of the best pieces of evidence he had seen.

With all the similarities to Bigfoot it is not surprising that the Batutut is sometimes called the Bigfoot of Vietnam but I find the Batutut to also be similar to the orang-pendek.

While putting together this post from various sources and adding in some of my own thoughts, I was surprised at some of the information I found. One thing I found rather interesting is that the overall size of reports of this creature falls well within the range of human sizes. I could not find any reports stating that the creature was over 6 foot tall or a hulking 10 foot beast. It makes me wonder if this is maybe just a scientifically undocumented monkey species of some sort. A little over one year ago a new spices of monkey was discovered in the Congo. The Lesula was the first new monkey species discovered in 28 years. It has a strikingly large, almost human like face with human type eyes and a pink face.
So could the Batutut be just another yet to be documented monkey species? possibly, then we can also question what is bigfoot? Monkey, Ape, lost man, hybrid or maybe we should just call most of them Primates at this point. It would seem more fitting.

Primates are grouped into monkeys, apes and hominids. Most monkey species have tails, but this is not true for apes or hominids, as they do not have tails, so until we can find out more about these creatures maybe Primate is a good name for now. If we consider the above primate information, we can deduce that Bigfoot would most likely fall within the apes or hominids area, which causes debates in the bigfoot community. I have never heard of any reports of bigfoot having a tail. Just remember this is a broad approach and each groups has groupings and characteristics that need to be considered. So in the end much more study and research will have to be done not only on the Batutut but our beloved Bigfoot.

Thanks
~Tom~
[Sources: cryptozoo-oscity, Wikipedia ]





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This is a post by TCC Team Member Dale Drinnon.
Dale has a degree in Anthropology with a background in Zoology and Paleontology.
Visit his Blog - Frontiers of Zoology

The Crypto Crew page recently had an article featuring this still from a video by Joe Black (Scott Carpenter) and when I saw it, it struck me that the facial section of it much resembled the facial skeleton of a Neanderthal man.

 I hardly think this was accidental and it must have either been done as a deliberate copy or else it is a living creature that is presumably related. And it seems to have a thick bushy mop of hair on top of its head also. How large the mass of hair is is hard to tell.
Thanks
Dale



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DF
©The Crypto Crew
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