sasquatch on science friday

I have never been one to discount much, but I have to believe that "big foot" is a myth.  This made me miss the X-files. 

Not bigfoot again...I can almost hear Autumn getting all hot and bothered.

care to explain more?

i think there is too much anecdotal evidence globally and historically to chalk it up to just a 'myth'. if you read anything about the subject, especially aspects that are subjected to the scientific method, it gets even more interesting. if jane thinks there is a good chance...that speaks loads. we are constantly finding new species...and rediscovering ones that were thought to be extinct (the most dramatic, of course, is the case of the coelacanth). i don't doubt that some of it is hoax, but a couple guys in gorilla suits can't explain away everything.

i do like tall men

you know what they say about guys with big feet.

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i was hoping you'd chime in on this thread!

yea, i read about the bigfoot episode. i think the mothman thing was a mass hallucination brought on by military and chemical testing in the area. i need to get a decent tv and cable in order to watch it.

yea, my hubby wears size 14 too. its near impossible to find shoes for him.

and yea, you know what they say about guys with big feet? they have really big shoes.

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Possible yes, likely.... I don't think so.  The discovery of new species does occur almost daily.  Look at current classification, they divided the kingdom Monera into bacteria and Archeabacteria because of celluar discoveries.  But the idea of a LARGE species like that being discovered now I think is very unlikely (possible yes). 

Edited by nccgrap 2006-11-14 1:09 PM

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i love discussing this topic, so i'm i hope you don't mind if i address a couple of your points...

re: large species - ones similar to the creature of loch ness? sure. some people think they were isolated plesiosaur. during the mass extinction, almost all marine life survived, so this is a posibility. i don't really have an opinion on loch ness and other marine sightings, but you never know. as for bigfoot, the most common theory is that they could be a remnant or a branch off of gigantopithecus blacki. most people have never heard of them, but they were the largest apes to have ever lived. look a bit like the myth?




re: discovering SMALL things, versus large animals - how about the okapi? its the size of a giraffe and was thought to be wiped out in certain parts of africa.

http://www.worldwildlife.org/news/displayPR.cfm?prID=286

just like i'm not 100% sure of anything in life, i'm not 100% sure about sasquatch. i do think there is a strong possibility they either have existed or continue to exist. the possibility of finding new animals and plants makes it all the more important that we keep our minds open, and protect wild spaces.

right. that would account for all the native american big foot legends, and the presence of ape imagery in traditional art...when we weren't supposed to have great apes in north america (other than ourselves). oh, and the same guys are probably responsible for the sightings of other lagre, bipedal hominids in other areas of the world. amazing what you can do with a case of beer, some plane tickets, and a fuzzy suit.

http://www.bfro.net/legends/

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here: http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/bigfoot-deer/

many of the stories about 'bigfoot' in the midwest are credited to black bear, which can appear to be bipedal when they stand on their hind legs. funny thing though...they hibernate from nov-april. so reports 6 months out of the year need another culprit. anyway, from the report, some unknown creature took a road kill deer from the back of a guy's truck. it would have had to be a VERY hungry bear...too hungry to have begun hibernating... or a VERY hungry sasquatch. this time of year, bear are hibernating. the theory about sasquatch is that, like some other reclusive animals, they evolved along side humans in such a way that it was in their best interest to avoid humans (and if you look at how many other 'relatives' we've wiped out over time, you can see why). assuming they exist, and that they are reclusive, i have a hard time believing one would hop up into a truck.

I heard that they only eat bike commuters.

just come back tomorrow w/ your counter points

really, no one can say if they are real or not, but i certainly think its worth exploring. many myths prove to be, if not true, at least based on something in realty. manticore myth is based on the tiger. dragon myth is based on finding dinosaur bones. unicorns are based on finding the tusks of norwals. not exactly as grand as the myths they inspired, but grand in their own way. even mountain gorillas were 'mythical' until there were 'discovered' by a western scientist in the early 1900s (even though local legend included stories about the animal going back generations). we are naive to think we know everything there is to know about this planet.

they really like texan bike commuters.

here ya go: http://www.texasbigfoot.com/