For those interested and visiting Maine in the next few months, I recommend the small but significant Homo floresiensis display at that the International Cryptozoology Museum (11 Avon St., Portland, Maine 04101).
The exhibit contains replicas of the cultural artifacts linked in remembrance of the sightings of little people in several lands. These range from standardized leprechauns to regular garden gnomes, from extreme miniature LOTR hobbits to tourist trade Hawaiian menehunes. (Your donations of sizable replicas of various cultures’ little people would assist with our expanding this visual part of the display.)
Importantly…
The museum has on display the first Bone Clones
Homo floresiensis skull created to appear on television. This replica was overnighted for my second ”live” appearance on G4TV’s news/talk program,
Attack of the Show on Tuesday, March 7, 2005, in Hollywood, California. It was the first broadcast appearance of
Bone Clones’ Homo floresiensis skull replica. My time on the program focused on how the remarkable 2003 discovery of the full-grown 3-4 ft tall people finally proved cryptozoology’s prediction that concurrent “little people” did exist in our past, and have survived in folklore. I also discussed how some contemporary accounts may relate to actual
Homo floresiensis survival.
Here is the information listed with this skull model from Bone Clones:
18,000 YA. The Homo floresiensis Skull (Flores Skull LB1) was discovered by P. Brown and his team on the island of Flores, Indonesia, in 2003 and reported in Nature in 2004. A skeleton of this species, which has been designated as female because of characteristics of the pelvis, shows that in maturity she was only about 3.3 feet tall. That such a specimen (which had an unusually small brain capacity — 380 cc — for its body size) was in existence only 18,000 YA could be one of the most important discoveries in decades. Stone tools were also found at this site. H. floresiensis is the subject of much debate centering around whether it is a new human species or a microcephalic human. P. Brown et al. originally proposed that the Flores hominid was the result of a long term process of isolation on an island known as “insular dwarfism.” - Bone Clones
The I
nternational Cryptozoology Museum also has extensive displays on Yeti, Bigfoot/Sasquatch, Napes/Skunk Apes, other global hairy unknown hominoids (e.g. Yowie, Orang Dalam, True Giants, Orang Pendek), as well as exhibits on a variety of other cryptids worldwide.
Photos used with permission.
Loren Coleman, Director
Portland, Maine
Interesting how there is an actual correlation in the fossil record to “little people” (as well as giants). But I’m not sure I understand why Homo Erectus has Gene Simmons’ hair?
Or wait… maybe I do.
I wonder how their intelligence compared with other, extant primates.
Probably very low with such a small brain cavity.
Based on this research, I am convinced that the Orang Pendek is probably a surviving modern-day representative (or a descendant) of the Hobbit, Homo floresiensis.
But with the Yeti and the Sasquatch, in my opinion, the situation is a little bit different. You see, these 2 cryptids are so similar to each other that, in my opinion, they must be members of the same species (or at least the same genus).
And they also happen to be so unlike any primates from the fossil record, that I just can’t identify a good candidate for either one of them. Therefore, it is my hypothesis that the Yeti and the Sasquatch are creatures which are completely new to science. So new, in fact, that the fossils of their ancestors probably haven’t even been discovered yet.
This proves a very important point; when you’re dealing with hominology, you cannot just lump them all together, and then proclaim that your own pet hypothesis must explain them all. That’s just not how it works at all.
Indeed, I shall once again repeat that, in my opinion, the Orang-Pendek is not closely related to the Yeti and Sasquatch at all, and that it is most-likely descended from its own, and very uniquely-evolved, ancient lineage.
Thank you, Troodon56, for your opinion. However, I feel that while your basic thesis is partially correction, you seem to have missed out on the majority thoughts within the field that does separate out the Orang Pendek from the Yeti and from the Sasquatch.
Yes, many of us sense the Orang Pendek is an evolved form of Homo floresiensis. Additionally, the fossil candidate for Yeti probably is a form of Dryopithecus, maybe Gigantopithecus. Sasquatch/Bigfoot are probably Paranthropus. There are some in the Bigfoot camp that think Sasquatch are Gigantopithecus, however. Time will tell with the discovery of these species.
In my book, The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates (NY: Anomalist Books, 1999, rev. ed. 2006, with Patrick Huyghe), the entire notion of separate species and genus worldwide is explored.
Hello, Loren! Thanks for the advice – I will try to get my hands on your book as soon as possible. But I just don’t understand what the difference between a Sasquatch/Yeti and a Bigfoot/Abominable Snowman is, morphologically-speaking. From all of what I’ve read, they’re pretty much the same thing. If you know any differences, Loren, I would love it if you could enlighten me a little bit! Thanks!