Alternative Hominid Research
Gigantopithecus lived 100,000 yrs ago
Is Bigfoot related to a evolutionary line of apes which included the enormous Gigantopethicus? This ape, which was thought to have lived during the Miocene period, was about 10 feet tall and weighed a massive 1200lbs. The proposed link between this prehistoric animal and the alleged existence of the Sasquatch is based largely on the coincidence of physical traits. The problem with establishing such a connection has always been the lack of evidence for Gigantopethicus during the period between the Miocene Era and today.
But now a University-based researcher is claiming that Gigantopithecus may have lived concurrently with modern humans. Jack Rink, associate professor of geography and earth sciences at the McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario , has proposed that:
"Gigantopithecus blackii, the largest primate that ever lived, roamed southeast Asia for nearly a million years before the species died out 100,000 years ago. This was known as the Pleistocene period, by which time humans had already existed for a million years. “A missing piece of the puzzle has always focused on pinpointing when Gigantopithecus existed,” said Rink. “This is a primate that co-existed with humans at a time when humans were undergoing a major evolutionary change. Guangxi province in southern China, where the Gigantopithecus fossils were found, is the same region where some believe the modern human race originated.”"
If Jack Rink is correct, then it would seem that a Bigfoot-like creature did indeed once exist alongside modern humans. Perhaps our species drove these huge apes to extinction. But maybe there's a good possibility that the Gigantopithecus was simply driven into environments which humans find difficult to live in. And perhaps they're still there...
The International Society of Cryptozoology consider it quite possible that the Gigantopithecus is one and the same as the reported Yeren, the Chinese Wildman. After all, Gigantopithecus blackii was an Asian species, or at least that is where the one jawbone relic defining this animal's existence came from. Anthropologists assume that Gigantopithecus was a quadruped, but how is it possible to establish that from a single jawbone?
If Gigantopithecus really did stand alongside modern humans just 100,000 years ago, then there is an exciting possibility that a race of hairy bipedal giants is still skulking about in the Earth's wildernesses. Given the recent experience with The Hobbits (more properly known as Homo Floresiensis), it seems that anything is truly possible...
Written by Andy Lloyd, 13th November 2005
References:
Bjorn Carey "Researcher: giant ape lived alongside humans" 7 November 2005
International Society of Cryptozoology "Unresolved Claims: The Yeren" Photo: Bill Munns (article no longer exists, rather like the International Society of Cryptozoology itself unfortunately). For further academic analysis, see:
"Bigfoot and the Yeren: A dialogue with Joshua Blu Buhs and Sigrid Schmalzer"
The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organisation "New Life-sized Replica of Gigantopithecus at Museum of Man in San Diego" Photo: Dan Trevan / San Diego Union-Tribune
Sasquatch Hair Analysed
The legend of Bigfoot goes back many years, and is controversial to say the least. Most members of the scientific community give the whole concept of the potential for an un known species of humanoid living in the wilderness short shrift. However, there is actually a sizeable quantity of scientific evidence available to support this remarkable hypothesis.
Work carried out by Dr Grover S. Krantz, a professor of anthropology at Washington State University, between the 1960s and 1990s is compelling (1), yet widely ignored.
Scientists in general simply don't want to know. Perhaps they are concerned that their reputations would be muddied amongst their peers if they undertook serious research into the question of the existence of the Sasquatch. Perhaps they simply can't bring themselves to believe it is even possible. But since the amazing discovery of Homo Floresiensis in Indonesia, there seems a greater chance that living examples of other humanoids may be found in the dense woodlands of North America.
Perhaps that is why a recent sighting of a Sasquatch was followed up by some serious scientific study. I heard about this story on BBC radio (2), and have picked up a few details about the results of the study since then. Surprisingly, the results of DNA testing carried out on a clump of hair have not proved conclusive. They should have! If the hair was of, say, a bison, as was largely thought probable, then the DNA testing should have alighted upon that conclusion. Instead, we are told that the testing proves that the dense clump of fuzzy underfur, complete with longer guard hairs, is 'not from an unknown animal' (2). This would not help determine whether the Bigfoot legend was true or not, it was announced, so 'the faithful could relax'.
Well, as ever, positive adherents of any subject like this are seen by the mainstream media as being 'believers' rather than advocates of a particular scientific hypothesis. This is the kind of attitude that Grover Krantz himself used to find so galling.
So what are the facts? Here was the release that was picked up by the news agency Reuters:
"A laboratory will test hair samples that several residents of Teslin, Yukon, say were left when the large, but so-far mythological creature made a late-night run through their community in early July. University of Alberta wildlife geneticist David Coltman, who agreed to do the tests as a favour to a colleague, said on Monday that scientists have catalogued the DNA of nearly all large animals in the Yukon such as bears and bison. "So we'll compare it to all of that, and if it doesn't match anything, then it's potentially interesting," said Coltman, who suspects the hair was actually left behind by a much more mundane Yukon bison. "If Sasquatch is indeed a primate, then we would expect the sample to be closer to humans or chimpanzees or gorillas," Coltman said.
"The legend of a large, hairy, two-legged creature lurking in the mountains of western Canada and the United States dates back to before Europeans settled the continent. This was the second report of the creature near Teslin in just over a year. In the latest sighting, a group of Teslin residents told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. they heard branches cracking and saw a large human-like creature run by a house. It left behind large footprints, they said, and the hair tufts that were given to wildlife officials." (3)
Initial analysis of the sample by biologists led to speculation that it was bison, but this was not conclusive. Why bison hair would be found in this locality was also a mystery:
"Philip Merchant, a veteran laboratory technician for the territorial Department of Environment, finished his analysis of the hair Wednesday afternoon. According to his test, which involved comparing a print of the hair’s scale pattern to those of other creatures, the hair likely came from bison. The results are not entirely conclusive though, said Dennis Senger, the department’s communications co-ordinator. “(Merchant) is being a scientist,” he said in an interview. “He’s not 100 per cent sure, so he doesn’t want to say anything conclusive.” Merchant’s expert opinion remains the same, though. He maintains the hair appears to be bison.
"“I have not seen anything to lead me in another direction,” he said in an interview. There are still many unknowns about the origins of the sample. Merchant said there is no way of knowing how the sample ended up there, whether it blew there or was placed there by human hand." (4)
There is plenty of scope here for real controversy, and the fact that a concrete conclusion was, apparently, not forthcoming from the DNA research seems very strange to me. Perhaps the tests were not completed on time, I don't know. But it would not surprise me at all if something rather odd was discovered about this hair, and the scientists involved realised that they had, perhaps, bitten off a little more than they could chew! I'll keep you informed of developments.
Written by Andy Lloyd, 30th July 2005
References:
1) Grover S. Krantz "Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence" 2nd Ed, 1999, Johnson Books
2) BBC Radio 4 "P.M.", 28 July 2005
3) Reuters "Canadian Lab To Test "Sasquatch" Hair" 25 July 2005
4) WhiteHorseStar.com (article no longer available online)
March 2003
It’s rare that English Ufology is able to welcome a speaker from the USA, even more so since the sad passing away of Graham Birdsall.
Thanks to a previously arranged fixture at the colossally pricey Nexus Conference in Amsterdam, the researcher and author Lloyd Pye paid a visit to our green and pleasant land (which was recently described as ‘one of the most beautiful islands on earth’ by the Lonely Planet guide, apparently not in jest).
Andy Lloyd and Lloyd Pye
Lloyd spoke at 4 hastily arranged venues in England, his focus the quixotic Starchild skull. British benefactors had recently provided substantial funding for the genetic testing that Lloyd had sought in vain from the American Ufology community. That testing is underway at a laboratory in Los Angeles. The London-based benefactors also arranged an appearance for Lloyd and the skull on the ‘Richard and Judy Show’ on daytime TV, which was quite a coup. It was hoped that the publicity generated would spark interest in Lloyd’s research among members of the public, who would then attend his forthcoming lectures. Unfortunately, his slot on the show was badly squeezed and, although Lloyd managed to get the message across about the potential importance of the Starchild skull, the programme’s presenters failed to publicise his up-coming lectures.
Even so, the publicity should have been enough to generate plenty of Internet activity, which would have brought interested parties to one of several web-sites advertising Lloyd’s tour programme, including pages on the Dark Star Theory web-site, and Karen Lyster’s in Australia. But a further setback occurred when the actual Starchild website inexplicably disappeared from the Net for the following week. No reason for the untimely disappearance could be found. As unlikely as it may sound, the site appears to have been sabotaged, just when it was needed the most.
And then, just to cap it all, the War started. Whoops, Apocalypse!
Image Credit: Andy Lloyd
So, needless to say, the audiences attending the various lectures were not quite as large as was hoped for. Nevertheless, at Lloyd’s appearance in Gloucester on 22nd March 2003 the audience was treated to a superb lecture, one that seemed to be enjoyed immensely by all present. He spoke for a little over 2 hours and covered more ground than an allied cluster bomb, decimating established scientific ‘facts’ with expert finesse. We heard about the evidence for hominids, alive and well in various forested wilderness locations around the globe, and how their existence holds the key to understanding the evolutionary muddle that supposedly led to humanity. We heard about Sitchin’s 12th Planet theory, and how the Anunnaki were the true progenitors of Biblical accounts. Then we heard about the Starchild Skull and how Lloyd considers it the smoking gun of an alien hybridisation programme on Earth.
Image Credit: Andy Lloyd
Casual Gloucestrian visitors who visited the museum in Gloucester to see the skull, after hearing about it on Radio Gloucestershire, or seeing it on Central TV news, or reading about it in the Gloucester Citizen newspaper that morning, were perhaps disappointed that the skull wasn’t a ‘normal’ exhibit.
I heard one Mum explain to her child that s/he ‘couldn’t see the alien skull because it was an adult talk’. And it was heady stuff all right. Any curious Saturday afternoon shopper off the street who actually bought a ticket to hear Lloyd’s presentation must have felt the after-effects of a major brain re-wiring going on in their head.
And that’s what it’s all about, because the prescribed knowledge that we all have rammed down our throats from Day 1 contains so much unchallenged bunk that it is almost impossible to get the alternative message across beyond the esoteric confines of the UFO sub-culture. In this paranoid day and Age, that truism is more profound than ever.
See Lloyd Pye's book "Everything You Know Is Wrong"
2004
Lloyd Pye and I share a mutual interest in the writings of Zecharia Sitchin. Lloyd lives in Louisiana and researches anthropological anomalies on a freelance basis. He has a particular interest in the various problems presented by the so-called 'Starchild Skull', an artefact whose properties defy straightforward analysis. He recently gave a private lecture in London, some photos of which are shown here, followed by keynote lectures in California and Australia..
Andy Lloyd and Lloyd Pye
I met up with Lloyd in Oxford on Saturday 11th September 2004 to discuss his latest findings. Surprisingly, it proved quite difficult to find publicly available I.T. hardware in the town on which to view Lloyd's new slides, but we were eventually rewarded by the goodwill of the staff in the Oxford Library. My seven year old son and I were treated to a personal talk through Lloyd's most recent slides, and fascinating they were too. A mystery that would flummox the brightest minds in Oxford, to be sure: New structural anomalies have been discovered that are puzzling the scientists charged with probing the skull's properties.
Photos by Andrew Johnson, and reproduced with kind permission.
As the team from the 'Starchild Project' here in England continue to build up a strong database of irrefutable facts about this bizarre skull, the perplexing anomalies accumulate further. This is no ordinary skull... perhaps the world should sit up and take notice.
Starchild Book
"The Starchild Skull" Book Review
Andy Lloyd's Starchild Painting
Written by Andy Lloyd, 2003-2005
author of 'The Dark Star' (2005), 'Ezekiel One' (2009), 'The Followers of Horus' (2010) and 'Darker Stars' (2019)
Sadly, Lloyd Pye passed away in December 2013 after a brief fight against cancer.
I pay tribute to him here.
