As the 40th anniversary of the Patterson-Gimlin footage nears, it is time to re-read a contribution of Darren Naish, Ph. D., formerly of the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, UK. Naish wrote a thoughtful blog on “Frame 352, and all that.”
In his lengthy essay, in one portion Naish specifically addresses anthropologist John Napier’s criticism of the Patterson-Gimlin footage:
What evidence has been marshaled by those who assert that the film is faked? To date, none. No analysis has been performed which shows that the creature can be explained as a man in a suit. Published objections have either asserted that the animal walks in a manner “consistent in general terms with the bipedal striding gait of modern man” (Napier 1974), or have pointed to the presence of furry breasts, the presence of a sagittal cranial crest in a female, or the presence of breasts in a creature without female-like hips and a waist, as problems showing that the film must have been faked.
These objections are all clearly erroneous (e.g. it is difficult to be confident that furry breasts are somehow impossible – while many primates do sport naked pectoral skin around their nipples and areolae, human breasts are hairy, it’s just that the hairs are very small and thin; sagittal crests are size-related, and only absent in the females of most hominid species because females do not match adult males in the size of their cranial musculature; broad hips and a waist are characters of our species, and not of other hominids or primates). Napier’s objections were vague and have not been supported by those more experienced in biomechanics than he was. Anyway, at the end of his book he writes “One is forced to conclude that a manlike life-form of gigantic proportions is living at the present time in the wild areas of the northwestern United States and British Columbia.”Darren Naish
Additionally, I might add Paranthropus did display sagittal crests in males and females. I consider Sasquatch aligned with Paranthropus, not Gigantopithecus. I have examined this issue here in my blog, “Bigfoot: Gigantopithecus or Paranthropus?”
Pictured above and below is the Black Skull (Paranthropus aethiopicus, specimen KNM-WT 17000), which had the largest sagittal crest known in the hominid lineage (excluding Bigfoot, of course, which, for now, must remain “unknown”).
Paranthropus/Black Skull image courtesy of Skulls Unlimited.
Read Dr. Naish’s complete blog for the rest of what he has to share.
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