WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.600 Now, when what are your putting? I got a screen going on here 2 00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:07.480 something just because my dog. Something killed your dog? My dog. We're 3 00:00:07.559 --> 00:00:10.160 flying through the or over the trade. I don't know how it did it, 4 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:15.240 okay, damn, And I'm really confused. All as I saw was 5 00:00:15.279 --> 00:00:18.079 my dog coming over the fence, and they did when you hit the girl. 6 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:20.839 I didn't see any car and all I saw was my dog coming over 7 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:40.880 the fence. Damn. Why what are you're putting? We got someone or 8 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:51.960 something crawling around out here? Do you see what it was? Or was 9 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:54.719 it was? Standing up? I'm out here looking through the window now and 10 00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:59.039 I don't see anything. I don't want to go outside. Jesus point you 11 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:06.760 be hello. Get the body out here on the outs thought of a bit 12 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:10.439 about six foot nine. I don't know. Easy out there, yep, 13 00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:14.159 I'm looking right out. Oh. I decided to share some articles that I 14 00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:17.799 read recently that I feel may help shed some light on the potential origins of 15 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:22.519 Sasquatch and perhaps even explain how they may have traveled to North America based on 16 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:26.959 what we know about our known ancestors. These articles are a bit scientific and 17 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:30.120 are certainly a departure from the usual encounter stories I read during story time, 18 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:34.400 but I know that the majority of you that listen to this show are true 19 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:38.280 seekers of knowledge. I hope you enjoyed this dive into the origins of our 20 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:42.719 ancestors and how we can draw certain parallels between our bushy family tree and what 21 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:46.920 thousands have claimed to encounter right here in North America. It should be noted 22 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:49.159 before I read this first article written by Bruce Hardy, that I do not 23 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:53.280 agree with him or his opinions on doctor Krantz or his assertion that the cripple 24 00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:57.079 footprints are a hoax. I share this article with you only in the hopes 25 00:01:57.120 --> 00:02:01.560 that it generate thought provoking conversation about Sasquatch research and what we can learn from 26 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:06.200 those who came before us. I believe that it is important to engage in 27 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:09.639 conversation with those that disagree with us, Otherwise we learn very little. If 28 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:14.080 you have opinions about this or any of the articles in this episode, my 29 00:02:14.199 --> 00:02:17.879 email address is Brian at Paranormal World Productions dot com. You can find links 30 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:22.840 to all the articles in this episode by visiting the Sasquatch Odyssey blog on our 31 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:27.400 website. Now, let's get into this first article, What Bigfoot Teaches Us 32 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:31.000 About Public Mistrust of Science. In the late nineteen sixties, Bigfoot seemed to 33 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:36.560 be trapesing all over the Pacific Northwest reports of footprints from an eight foot tall 34 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:40.240 bipedal primate. It came in from Washington to northern California. Chasing these footprints 35 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:45.120 and the creature who made them were a group of amateur naturalists, journalists, 36 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:50.879 and a few credential physical anthropologists. Science historian Brian Regal has called this group 37 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:54.599 the Monster Hunters. In late nineteen sixty nine, the Monster Hunters descended on 38 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:59.599 a town in northern Washington in bigfoot circles. This would become known as the 39 00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:04.639 boss Burg Incident. The rivalry among the monster hunters was intense. Everyone wanted 40 00:03:04.680 --> 00:03:07.080 to be the first to find or even capture a big foot, but they 41 00:03:07.159 --> 00:03:10.599 also didn't want to fall for a hoax. When the desks finally settled on 42 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:15.240 the small town of Bossburg, we would see the pitfalls of combining science, 43 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:20.560 ego and arrogance, and how this cocktail promote pseudoscience and public mistrust of science. 44 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:24.360 After some early accounts in sidings, the twentieth century big Foot Frenzy erupted 45 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:29.159 when a set of footprints were found on the construction site managed by Ray Wallace 46 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:32.599 near Bluff Creek, California, in nineteen fifty eight. The prints looked human, 47 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:37.120 but were larger and suggested a stride length of between four and ten feet. 48 00:03:37.639 --> 00:03:39.520 The creature was purported to be between eight and ten feet tall, with 49 00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:44.719 footprints that could be eighteen inches long and eight inches wide. Over the course 50 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:49.719 of several weeks, more footprints surface near Bluff Creek. The construction crew attributed 51 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:53.199 them to a creature they called Bigfoot. Once the media picked up the story, 52 00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:58.039 the search was on for North America's abominable snowman. In nineteen sixty seven, 53 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:01.240 two monster hunters, Roger Patter and Bob Gimlin, set out on horseback 54 00:04:01.319 --> 00:04:05.800 to film Bigfoot. They were once again near Bluff Creek on October twentieth. 55 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:10.159 They recorded about a minute of grainy, blurry footage. To this day, 56 00:04:10.280 --> 00:04:14.280 the Paterson Gimlin film is considered by many to be the best evidence of Bigfoot's 57 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:18.279 existence. Also known as Sasquatch, Bigfoot sightings have occurred in every US state 58 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:23.560 except to Wayi, and around the world. Other clandestine bipeds supposedly roam, 59 00:04:24.079 --> 00:04:28.040 among others, the Yeddy climbs, the Himalayas, the Almas prowls Russia, 60 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:31.639 and the Yawie lurks in Australia. According to some, our planet is overrun 61 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:36.319 with towering primates. When tracks were found in northern Washington a few years after 62 00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:42.240 the Patterson Gimlin film, everyone came running. A veritable circus of monster hunters 63 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:45.800 and media arrived at the small town of Bossburg. But I would just focus 64 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:50.879 on three rented Dahinden, Grovercrantz and Ivan Marks. The irascible Swiss Canadian Dahinden 65 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:56.399 was an amateur naturalist who had a reputation in the bigfoot community as a serious 66 00:04:56.439 --> 00:05:01.160 investigator who was suspicious of most people involved in bigfoot research. A physical anthropologist 67 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:06.319 at Washington State University, Krantz saw himself as bringing real scientific training and acumen 68 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:11.240 to the search for this anomalous primate. Marks, a tracker, trapper, 69 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:15.959 and cougar breeder, had been involved in bigfoot investigations since the early nineteen sixties. 70 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:19.759 In November nineteen sixty nine, following up on local rumors, Marks located 71 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:25.000 footprints near the city dump and alerted fellow monster hunters that he had found Bigfoot. 72 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:28.600 Danndon joined Marks a few weeks later, and the two went searching for 73 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:31.560 more tracks. On December thirteenth, they checked an area where they had left 74 00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:34.759 meat out as bait. Marks got out of the car, but returned almost 75 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:40.920 immediately having found footprints in the snow. This trackway comprised one eighty nine prints. 76 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:45.079 When Krantz finally arrived, most of the tracks had melted or been trampled 77 00:05:45.160 --> 00:05:48.319 on, but a few were preserved under cardboard and newspaper. These would convince 78 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:53.639 Krantz that Bigfoot was real. The left foot, like most alleged bigfootprints, 79 00:05:53.800 --> 00:05:57.879 was about seventeen inches long and seven inches wide. The right foot, however, 80 00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:01.240 as curved toes and bulges on the side. As a physical anthropologist trained 81 00:06:01.240 --> 00:06:04.560 in anatomy, Krantz believed that the right prints of normality was due to a 82 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:09.040 traumatic injury which led to a deformity in the foot and a severe let. 83 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:12.879 He said, if someone faked these footprints with all the subtle hints of anatomy 84 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:15.160 design, he had to be a real genius, an expert at anatomy, 85 00:06:15.399 --> 00:06:19.199 very inventive, an original thinker. He had to outclass me in those areas, 86 00:06:19.319 --> 00:06:23.279 and I don't think anyone outclasses me in those areas, at least not 87 00:06:23.399 --> 00:06:27.879 since Leonardo da Vinci, So I say such a person as impossible. Therefore 88 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:31.399 the tracks are real. These became known as the Crippled Foot Tracks. Unlike 89 00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:34.839 Krantz, d Hendon had seen the entire trackway. It started at a river, 90 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:39.519 crossed a railway road, and fenced several times, and ended back at 91 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:43.879 the same river. It was an odd path. Mars also conveniently found bigfoot 92 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:46.720 evidence at will. Dahnden said of Marx, it seemed that every time he 93 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:50.839 called, Marks had found something a handprint here, a footprint there, always 94 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:55.600 something to keep the trail warm. A few weeks later, Marks claimed to 95 00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:58.680 have filmed the creature. When others viewed the video, some thought it was 96 00:06:58.759 --> 00:07:02.680 obviously faked. Evidence surface that Marx had recently bought scraps of foreign and neighboring 97 00:07:02.759 --> 00:07:06.959 town they hand in strongly suspected that Marks also hoax the Cripple Foot tracks, 98 00:07:08.199 --> 00:07:11.759 but Krantz refuse to accept that they were not real. What are the chances 99 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:16.160 that innate foot tall bipedal primate exists in North America? From an ecological perspective 100 00:07:16.439 --> 00:07:20.079 slant. Large bodied animals eat a lot and then produce mounds of poop. 101 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:26.720 Surely hikers and naturalists would have encountered big foot droppings, whereover no one has 102 00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:30.680 ever found bones, road kill, or other remains from a dead big foot. 103 00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:34.240 Science purports to be a systematic way of gaining reliable knowledge about the world 104 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:39.519 around us. Science's authority comes from the fact that it relies on evidence, 105 00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:43.920 which can be checked by others to ensure reliability. Done properly, science is 106 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:48.240 self correcting. However, the scientific process can break down if individual scientists see 107 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:53.800 themselves rather than the evidence, as the source of authority, then the evidence 108 00:07:53.879 --> 00:07:59.120 becomes secondary or worse, unimportant. In the cripple foot case, Krantz's estimation 109 00:07:59.240 --> 00:08:01.120 of his own intelligence, at least on par with that of da Vinci, 110 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:05.680 blinded him to the evidence that was before him. He believed that his knowledge 111 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:09.800 was so specialized in detailed that it was beyond the capacity of others to understand. 112 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:13.439 He was more like a medieval priest than a scientist. Day himself, 113 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:18.199 not a credentialed expert, was better able to recognize the evidence for what it 114 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:22.639 was. The amateur dahanden acted more scientifically than the PhD holding scientist Krantz. 115 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:28.800 The Bossberg incident serves as a warning against hubris amongst scientists. When the scientist 116 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:33.000 becomes more important than the subject being studied or the evidence being gathered, they 117 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:37.919 are no longer practicing science or producing reliable and useful knowledge, and scientific or 118 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:41.840 academic hubris is not limited to claiming genius level intelligence. He can also manifest 119 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:46.519 an opaque language. In later years, Krantz would say that he had two 120 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:50.639 secret tests that could determine whether a footprint was real he never revealed. Then 121 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:54.879 ultimately, not even the other monster hunters trusted him. When scientists behave as 122 00:08:54.919 --> 00:08:58.840 Krantz did, as if they possess secret knowledge that is somehow unobtainable or in 123 00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:03.440 comprehensible to those without specialized training, they open the door to public mistrust. 124 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:09.039 The public should have trust in science. It is the most efficiently reliable way 125 00:09:09.080 --> 00:09:11.720 to learn about the world around us. But let Bigfoot be a reminder that 126 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:18.039 scientists are not more important than the quality and accessibility of their science. This 127 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:22.120 next article, written by Jackie Woodstock, raises the age old question that many 128 00:09:22.159 --> 00:09:24.759 of us have asked ourselves for most of our lives. There are plenty of 129 00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:28.000 people who have seen these elusive creatures, and therefore they have their answer, 130 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:33.080 But for some of us, the answer may not be as clear. Bigfoot 131 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:37.159 is it real or a figment of the imagination. For decades, stories of 132 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:41.159 a bipedal apelike creature have been circling the globe, and the Adirondacks has no 133 00:09:41.320 --> 00:09:46.720 exception. Native Americans have talked about sasquatch for hundreds of years. Often considered 134 00:09:46.759 --> 00:09:50.840 a West Coast phenomenon, sightings have also appeared all over the Adirondacks, from 135 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:54.039 Saranac Lake in the north to famous sightings in Whitehall. This creature has many 136 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:58.080 names depending on the geographical location of the sighting, but the most common names 137 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:03.240 for this creature in North America are Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Yetie, and Skunkcate. 138 00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:07.080 The one commonality of sidings, despite the location on the globe, is 139 00:10:07.159 --> 00:10:09.919 the fact that the sightings occurred in remote areas with a large amount of vegetation 140 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:15.919 and that are not densely populated by humans. The sidings all describe Bigfoot as 141 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:18.759 very tall, often described as six to fifteen feet tall, covered in hair 142 00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:22.919 and bearing an apelike facial appearance at a nasty stanch, hence the name skunkate. 143 00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:26.039 They are said to knock on trees as a warning, and even throw 144 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:31.960 small stones at humans who ventured too close. The accounts of vocalizations vary from 145 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:37.360 a warlike sound to varying pitch groans. Witnesses observed these so called humanoids crossing 146 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:41.679 roads at night, striding furtively through forest and mountain terrain. Some people have 147 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:45.440 not actually seen Bigfoot in person, but claimed to have cast of giant sized 148 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:48.440 footprints and small tufts of hair they believe was left by this animal. Many 149 00:10:48.519 --> 00:10:52.720 people are leary to share their sightings of this creature out of fear of looking 150 00:10:52.759 --> 00:10:56.879 crazy or being questioned about their judgment and constant badgering, but they may have 151 00:10:56.960 --> 00:11:00.720 misidentified the sighting and actually saw a known creature, such as a black bear. 152 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:05.000 As a nature lover and resident of the Adirondacks for nearly five decades, 153 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:07.360 I have not seen a creature that fits the description of those claiming to have 154 00:11:07.480 --> 00:11:11.440 spotted this wild man. There are, however, residents here in the mountains 155 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:16.120 that do claim to have seen this creature, and festivals were born in celebration 156 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:20.159 of the elusive Bigfoot when such festival occurs in the town of Whitehall, where 157 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:24.200 visitors are afforded the opportunity to share their sightings with others who have had similar 158 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:28.440 experiences. Native Americans are no stranger to Bigfoot. On the Chilla River Indian 159 00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:33.279 Reservation, a set of giant pictographs tells a two thousand year old story, 160 00:11:33.720 --> 00:11:37.559 the creation tale of the Yoka people and the gatekeeper of their spiritual world, 161 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:41.679 a figure known as Hairyman. They believe when you see a Bigfoot, it's 162 00:11:41.720 --> 00:11:45.039 not a good sign. It means he's coming to take somebody who's going to 163 00:11:45.080 --> 00:11:48.679 pass over to the other side. There's even a Hairyman song that women sing 164 00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:52.679 during a funeral to make sure he does take that soul over. The Yokut 165 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:54.840 are not the only tribe who speak of the Hairyman. There are stories of 166 00:11:54.879 --> 00:11:58.919 Bigfoot like creatures in the oral tradition of dozens of North American tribes under an 167 00:12:00.120 --> 00:12:03.360 array of names, Sasquatch and Scuokum among them, each giving different qualities to 168 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:07.879 the creature. For the Iraq and caruc Bigfoot is just another member of the 169 00:12:07.960 --> 00:12:11.440 forest. The Miwok of the Yosemite area Bigfoot is a boogeyman snatching children from 170 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:16.279 their tribe and eating them. There's even a place in the Stanislaus National Forest, 171 00:12:16.679 --> 00:12:20.679 Pinnacle Point Cave, where the tribe believes the Bigfoot consumed its victims. 172 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:24.600 The indigenous peoples of coastal British Columbia share a similar legend of a cannibal name 173 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:28.360 Deson, the wild Woman of the Woods, who was often depicted on totem 174 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:33.320 Pole's whistling, which is mentioned often in Bigfoot accounts. Tribal members warn if 175 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:37.679 you hear whistling at night, don't go outside, because it is a Bigfoot 176 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:41.320 trying to lure you out. Rachel Plumber was a white woman captured by a 177 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:45.480 Commanche raiding party in Texas in eighteen thirty six. Two years later, she 178 00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:48.000 was free and published an account of her time as a Comanche prisoner across the 179 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:52.240 Southwest. Included was a detailed rundown of the animals of the prairie is shown 180 00:12:52.279 --> 00:12:56.120 to her by the Commanchee, including prairie dogs, mountain sheep, elk, 181 00:12:56.440 --> 00:13:01.720 wolves, bears, and finally the man tiger. The Indians say they have 182 00:13:01.799 --> 00:13:03.840 found several of them in the mountains. They describe them as being of the 183 00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:07.759 feature and make of a man. They are said to walk erect and are 184 00:13:07.799 --> 00:13:11.679 eight or nine feet high. Whether one believes in the legend of Bigfoot or 185 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:15.320 not, one must admit that if Bigfoot exists, the Adirondacks are an ideal 186 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:20.120 location for the species. The Adirondacks is home to diverse wildlife in a large 187 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:24.240 area of dense wilderness where animals can evade humans. But the eighteen thousand new 188 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:28.639 species of plants and animals being discovered every year, surely it's possible that an 189 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:31.519 animal species we are not familiar with exists and has no will to have humans 190 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:35.919 interfere with their lives. Seth Breedlove, a well known filmmaker, set out 191 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:39.679 on a journey in the Adirondacks in search of evidence that the creature called Bigfoot 192 00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:43.720 is in fact a living animal. This series on the Trail of Bigfoot contains 193 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:48.360 his findings. One of my favorite fictional movies about Bigfoot, Harry and the 194 00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:52.480 Henderson's, is a heartfelt movie about a family who accidentally hits a Bigfoot with 195 00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:56.240 their car and their comical interactions when they bring it home. If you haven't 196 00:13:56.279 --> 00:14:00.919 seen it yet, it's worth the time to check it out. This next 197 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:05.000 article, written by cobstre at The forty End, is entitled last Word on 198 00:14:05.080 --> 00:14:09.159 the Yaui. Last month, my crypto colleague Tony Healey and I launched our 199 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:13.000 fourth book, The Yowie File, Encounters with Australian Ape Man. It's a 200 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:16.200 companion volume to The Yawi published by Anomalous Books in two thousand and six, 201 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:20.960 with many more historical cases and a stack of additional modern air reports. It 202 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:26.039 is available in hard back, soft cover and evel versions on Amazon US and 203 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:30.600 Amazon Australia. The Alley File took around nine years to complete, but we're 204 00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:33.240 very happy with how it turned out. In The Alley we devoted an entire 205 00:14:33.320 --> 00:14:37.279 chapter to indigenous Yaoui lore, showing that many, if not most, Aboriginal 206 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:41.159 people from Cape York Peninsula ride down the east coast of Victoria, across to 207 00:14:41.240 --> 00:14:46.600 South Australia, Western Australia and up to the Northern Territory strongly believe in the 208 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:50.399 existence of hair covered man like or apelike creatures. Their many cultures have different 209 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:56.080 terms for them dulagal Fu, Lagal, Newcuna, Jimbra, t Jingara, 210 00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:00.519 Puddican and Jurawar, to name, but a few nowadays went to gusting them 211 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:03.840 with people outside their own language group. Indigenous people often employ the term hairyman. 212 00:15:05.519 --> 00:15:09.399 Our files now contain considerably more Indigenous lord than they did back in two 213 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:11.919 thousand and six, and we have included much of that additional material in the 214 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:16.000 new book. Equally pleasing for us are the many additional colonial air cases we 215 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:20.440 managed to unearth. One of the big changes over the last few years has 216 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:26.240 been the availability of digital records. Trove, the online repository of Australian newspapers 217 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:28.840 and journals, is an amazing research tool and it's free. Plug in the 218 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:33.559 right search terms and you will find a plethora of cases. It's a vast 219 00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:37.120 improvement on how things were back in the nineteen seventies and eighties, when I 220 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:41.360 spent hundreds of hours waiting through bound copies of smelly old newspapers in the State 221 00:15:41.480 --> 00:15:46.000 library. Why is this older material important? Well, by detailing the long 222 00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:50.200 history of hairyman sightings by non Aboriginal Australians from the early colonial era onwards, 223 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:54.679 we finally put paid to the notion that the phenomenon is simply the result of 224 00:15:54.759 --> 00:16:00.200 fantasy prone Australian zepeg, their bigfoot hunting, American cousins. Indigenous hairy man 225 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:03.600 traditions certainly predate the European experience, and Tony and I have always assumed that 226 00:16:03.679 --> 00:16:08.720 Indigenous lore and European traditions are describing the same phenomena. After all, many 227 00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:12.799 Indigenous informants explicitly state that such as the case. But I do think we've 228 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:18.279 been looking at the Aboriginal lore from a European viewpoint and it deserves deeper research. 229 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:22.360 So after four books and over forty years of research, what is my 230 00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:26.039 verdict on the alley. In the early nineteen seventies, I was convinced that 231 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:30.399 flesh and blood ape like creatures were tramping around undiscovered in the Australian bush. 232 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:33.759 I felt like a zoologist. But after a few years, like many others, 233 00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:37.720 including Tony, I began to suspect there was something decidedly uncanny about the 234 00:16:37.799 --> 00:16:42.279 crutters. Quite apart from their ability to avoid being shot dead run over by 235 00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:47.600 trucks are clearly photographed. There was the inconvenient truth that very similar creatures have 236 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:51.279 been reported for centuries in many other parts of the world, all of them 237 00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:56.360 apparently and vulnerable to gunfire and camera traps, and maddeningly elusive. So for 238 00:16:56.480 --> 00:17:00.720 a time I was a para psychologist. After that, I favored for a 239 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:04.599 while the notion that the Yawi phenomenon was simply a sociological or psychological constrat, 240 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:10.240 an amalgam of myth, mass, hysteria, hoaxes, and misidentification of common 241 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:14.720 wildlife. That skeptical stands, however, was always difficult to sustain in view 242 00:17:14.759 --> 00:17:18.759 of the huge body of compelling eyewitness testimony. Far from being seen only by 243 00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:22.400 loan motorists in the dead hours of night, at least fifty percent of Yowie 244 00:17:22.440 --> 00:17:26.759 encounters occur in broad daylight, and approximately one third involved more than a single 245 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:30.319 witness. In fact, some of the hundreds of informants I've interviewed over the 246 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:33.640 past four decades have described events involving not just one or two, but multiple 247 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:38.119 witnesses. I invite doubters to consider the billow Chee case or even the Nundery 248 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:44.599 case as good examples multiple people in broad daylight. I no longer think there 249 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:48.799 is a simple explanation. There is no doubt that people across Australia really do 250 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:53.599 encounter creatures They consistently describe as large, sometimes very large, bipetal hair covered 251 00:17:53.640 --> 00:17:56.960 ape like men or man like apes. I don't, however, believe that 252 00:17:57.079 --> 00:18:00.759 Yowe's are real in the same way that kangaroo or EMUs are real. Unlike 253 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:04.720 our normal fauna, they can't be trapped, poison, killed by four wheel 254 00:18:04.839 --> 00:18:08.000 drives, are shot dead, they cannot be clearly photographed, and they don't 255 00:18:08.039 --> 00:18:12.920 leave consistent tracks. That said, they are regularly encountered across the entire continent, 256 00:18:14.200 --> 00:18:17.559 even on the edges of our major cities. So am I saying it's 257 00:18:17.559 --> 00:18:21.720 all paranormal. I believe that yowie sightings are one part of our world spectrum 258 00:18:21.759 --> 00:18:26.480 of weird experiences. The creatures certainly have a real physical presence, at least 259 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:30.160 some of the time. They kill animals, rip branches from trees, create 260 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:33.839 stick formations, purl rocks, exude nauseating odors, but when people armed with 261 00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:38.160 guns or cameras set out in pursuit, they simply fade away. For decades, 262 00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:41.720 the Yowie field has been trapped between two main schools of thought. On 263 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:45.839 one side, the flesh and blood crowd, who say the creatures must be 264 00:18:45.960 --> 00:18:49.119 real, albeit extremely elusive, animals, and on the other the skeptics who 265 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:53.440 insist that the entire phenomenon is nothing but mass hysteria, hoaxes, and wishful 266 00:18:53.480 --> 00:18:57.400 thinking. The flesh and blood crowd focus on parts of the phenomenon that align 267 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:02.319 with their view and exclude anything that's too weird. The skeptics simply ignore the 268 00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:06.759 mountains of compelling eyewitness testimony, point to the scarcity of physical evidence, and 269 00:19:06.839 --> 00:19:10.799 state that it's all nonsense. Neither has proven their case, and the sightings 270 00:19:10.839 --> 00:19:14.400 continue, it must be time for some new thinking. I'm a big fan 271 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:18.880 of forty and author Jeron Clark's position on similar reports and other high strangists, 272 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:22.559 anomalies and unexplained. He puts it like this, The question really is this, 273 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:26.720 Is it possible to have the experience of encountering bizarre beasts and entities? 274 00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:32.519 And the answer is yes. To respond affirmatively is only to acknowledge modestly the 275 00:19:32.599 --> 00:19:36.720 obvious, which is, as folklorists Bill Ellis puts it, weird stuff happens. 276 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:40.720 We are in no way conceding anything about what all this weird stuff means. 277 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:44.559 We can grant that people see fairies are murfolk without for a moment believing 278 00:19:44.599 --> 00:19:48.559 that fairies are mrfolk are real. We simply acknowledge that such sightings are an 279 00:19:48.599 --> 00:19:52.839 experience it is possible to have, even though the actual dynamics of the experience 280 00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:56.480 remain unknown. So far, science is currently constructive, therefore has little to 281 00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:00.680 offer in the way of elucidation, and occultism has only obfuscation. The nature 282 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:06.759 of these experiences need not remain forever inexplicable, but the ever accelerating accumulation of 283 00:20:06.839 --> 00:20:10.519 knowledge in all areas we may presume it will be possible sooner or later to 284 00:20:10.599 --> 00:20:15.039 place these experiences in a rational perspective. Either is here too four unsuspected perceptual 285 00:20:15.079 --> 00:20:19.720 anomalies, or as glimpses of an otherwise undetected larger reality. Whether the solution 286 00:20:19.799 --> 00:20:23.279 comes from the micro or macro side of the existential ledger, it is sure 287 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:27.160 to teach us something new. Until then, these events should be regarded simply 288 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:33.599 as curiosities that represent some of human experiences more peculiar and unclassifiable aspects, and 289 00:20:33.680 --> 00:20:37.119 about which it is difficult to say more. In other words, they should 290 00:20:37.160 --> 00:20:40.119 not be seen as the foundation of a new science or a new religion, 291 00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:42.319 and they ought not to threaten anyone who does not need to believe late twentieth 292 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:47.960 century science has accounted for all the interesting phenomena of mind and nature. I 293 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:51.599 remember trying to explain this position to good friend Bill Chalker, to which he 294 00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:55.400 responded, krap, that's a cop out. I know, it's an explanation 295 00:20:55.480 --> 00:20:59.680 that effectively avoids explanation, But right now, that's where the phenomenon leaves us. 296 00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:03.880 Now. He's sightings are genuine experiences, currently unexplainable yet totally fascinating. 297 00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:08.599 They are currently beyond our understanding, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep investigating 298 00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:12.839 the phenomena. Perhaps in fifty years or maybe a hundred, it will all 299 00:21:12.920 --> 00:21:17.720 make perfect sense. In the meantime, I feel privileged to have been able 300 00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:22.359 to document this curious and puzzling part of the human experience. Stay tuned for 301 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:30.279 more Sasquatch Odyssey will be right back after these messages. This next section is 302 00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:33.720 from an interview with Professor Chris Stringer. He is one of the leading experts 303 00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:37.559 in human evolution. As Professor Stringer tells us, there's a paradigm shift underway 304 00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:41.759 in our understanding of the past four million years of human evolution. Ours is 305 00:21:41.799 --> 00:21:48.240 a story that includes combinations with other Homo species spread unevenly across today's population, 306 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:52.559 not a neat and linear evolutionary progression. Technological advances at a growing body of 307 00:21:52.680 --> 00:21:57.799 archaeological evidence have allied experts in the study of human origins and prehistory to offer 308 00:21:57.880 --> 00:22:03.079 an increasingly clear, though complex outline of the biohistorical process that produced today's human 309 00:22:03.160 --> 00:22:07.400 population and cultures. For the most part, the public is presented with new 310 00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:11.960 findings as interesting novel the items in the news and science coverage. The fore 311 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:18.000 picture, and the notion that this information has valuable implications for society and our 312 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:23.000 political arrangements doesn't usually percolate into public consciousness or in centers of influence, But 313 00:22:23.079 --> 00:22:27.599 there is an emerging realization in the expert community that humanity can greatly benefit from 314 00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:33.559 making this material a pillar of human education and gradually grow accustomed to an evidence 315 00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:38.359 based understanding of our history, behavior, biology, and capacities. There's every 316 00:22:38.440 --> 00:22:44.240 indication that a better understanding of ourselves strengthens humanity as a whole and makes connection 317 00:22:44.359 --> 00:22:48.160 and cooperation more possible. The process will realistically take decades to take root, 318 00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:52.640 and it seems the best way at this point to accelerate that process is in 319 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:57.119 articulating the big picture and giving people key footholds and scientific reference points for understanding. 320 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:02.119 I reached out to discuss some of the bigger conclusions that are emerging from 321 00:23:02.119 --> 00:23:04.559 the research with Professor Chris Stringer, who has been at the forefront of human 322 00:23:04.599 --> 00:23:10.920 evolutionary understanding for decades. Stringer helped formulate the Out of Africa model of our 323 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:15.279 species origins and continues to pursue pioneering projects at the UK Natural History Museum in 324 00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:21.200 London as Research Leader in Human Origins in the Department of Earth Sciences. A 325 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:23.880 good place to start is that we know that today's humans produced fertile offspring with 326 00:23:23.960 --> 00:23:29.319 relative Homo species that had separated from us hundreds of thousands of years ago, 327 00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:33.599 and this went on with ancestor species for as far back as scientists are able 328 00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:37.799 to trace. This is against a backdrop that for primate species it was possible 329 00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:41.200 to produce fertile offspring with other species sharing a common ancestor as far back as 330 00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:45.400 two million years, with a generally decreasing chance of success across the passage of 331 00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:51.440 time and divergence between Homo species. We know that our species produced some fertile 332 00:23:51.480 --> 00:23:56.319 offspring with Neanderthals and with denis even we also have negative evidence that there were 333 00:23:56.359 --> 00:24:00.559 limits on infertility between some of the Homo species because we don't find a lot 334 00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:03.799 more evidence of it in our genomes. Thus, matings between more distantly related 335 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:07.519 species either didn't occur, we're not fertile, or we can detect them at 336 00:24:07.559 --> 00:24:11.920 the level of our current technology. There are barriers, and we know that 337 00:24:11.039 --> 00:24:15.799 in our genomes today there are areas of deserts where there's zero neander tall and 338 00:24:15.880 --> 00:24:18.079 denisive in DNA, and we know that some of those deserts are in areas 339 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:22.640 that influence things like speech and vocalization and how the brain works. There are 340 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:26.599 also suggestions that male children may have been less fertile or infertile compared with the 341 00:24:26.680 --> 00:24:30.799 female children of those hybrid matings at the level we can detect it. There 342 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:36.440 is no strong evidence so far of infertility between Homo sapiens and our more distant 343 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:40.599 relatives such as Homo floresiensis or Homo nildy. So we don't yet know all 344 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:44.519 of the Homo species which could have hybridized or did hybridize during the last two 345 00:24:44.599 --> 00:24:48.920 million years, but certainly some of them would have been into a fertile Unpacking 346 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:52.519 what you've said here, it changes the coordinates of how we explain human evolution 347 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:56.079 to ourselves. Not a linear progression, but a series of combinations of different 348 00:24:56.119 --> 00:25:00.680 groups that occasionally produced advantages for survival. In some cases, survival for a 349 00:25:00.759 --> 00:25:06.839 migrating home of population could be assisted by hybridizing with a residant species that had 350 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:10.880 survived in a region for hundreds of thousands of years or more, picking up 351 00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:15.440 their adaptations of the immune system, their ability to process oxygen, or other 352 00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:19.359 traits, not to mention the informational exchange of culture and lifestyle. The more 353 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:22.160 one learns about this, the easier it is to see that the passage of 354 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:26.960 time is better thought of as just an ingredient in the human evolutionary story. 355 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:30.559 With this in mind, it's easier to grasp how far astray the concept of 356 00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:34.960 primitive can take us in understanding ourselves and our evolutionary process. As the world 357 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:38.960 begins to put this information at the center of human education, it's so important 358 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:42.960 to get the root words right as best we can. Archaic and modern. 359 00:25:44.279 --> 00:25:48.359 They're all loaded terms, and there are many different definitions of what a species 360 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:52.920 is there are some people who only use human for sapiens, then the Neanderthals 361 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:55.920 worth of be human. I don't agree with that because it means that we 362 00:25:56.039 --> 00:25:59.400 mate it with non humans in the last fifty thousand years, which I think 363 00:25:59.480 --> 00:26:03.880 makes the conversation very difficult. In my view, the term human equates to 364 00:26:03.960 --> 00:26:07.519 being a member of the genus Homo, so I regard the Neanderthals, road 365 00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:11.000 Saensis, and Erectus as all being human. And the terms modern and archaic, 366 00:26:11.160 --> 00:26:15.079 these are difficult terms and I've tried to move away from them now because, 367 00:26:15.160 --> 00:26:18.119 on the one hand, the term modern is used for modern behavior and 368 00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:22.680 it's also used for modern anatomy, so these terms get confused. For example, 369 00:26:22.839 --> 00:26:27.920 some ancient human fossil findings have been described as anatomically modern but not behaviorally 370 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:32.759 modern. I think that's just too confusing to be useful. When we look 371 00:26:32.799 --> 00:26:36.440 at the early members of a Homo species, instead of having the term archaic 372 00:26:36.640 --> 00:26:38.799 as in having archaic traits, I think it's clear if we use the term 373 00:26:38.839 --> 00:26:42.480 basil. Basil puts us on a path without the confusion and baggage that can 374 00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:47.480 come with terms like archaic, primitive, and modern. In this usage, 375 00:26:47.559 --> 00:26:49.640 basil is a relative term, but at least one where we can come up 376 00:26:49.640 --> 00:26:55.559 with criteria to delineate it. It helps here to consider the evolutionary process outside 377 00:26:55.559 --> 00:26:59.920 of Homo sapiens. Neanderthals had a process of evolution as well, from the 378 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:03.319 period they split off with our common ancestor. Neanderthals at the end of their 379 00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:07.839 time were very derived, quite different from how they started potentially six hundred thousand 380 00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:12.720 years ago, and yet under conventional thinking they are called archaic. Over the 381 00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:17.359 period of hundreds of thousands of years, they developed a number of new physical 382 00:27:17.400 --> 00:27:22.079 features that were not there in the common ancestor with Homo sapiens. For example, 383 00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:25.319 they developed a face that was pulled forward at the middle, a spherical 384 00:27:25.359 --> 00:27:27.960 cranial shape, even some of the earbones were a different shape, and like 385 00:27:29.119 --> 00:27:33.279 us, they evolved a bigger brain. The derived home on Neandertal senses looked 386 00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:37.599 quite different from their ancestors three hundred thousand years earlier. So let's scrap the 387 00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:41.119 verbal framework of primitive and archaic and modern and go with basal and derive along 388 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:47.039 both our and the Neanderthal lineage. Another recent shift and understanding is the story 389 00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:51.119 of how we learned to walk. A growing body of research suggests it happened 390 00:27:51.160 --> 00:27:53.920 on tree branches and that our arms had a role to play in providing balance. 391 00:27:55.640 --> 00:27:59.119 When you look at orangutans and gibbons, who are our close living relatives 392 00:27:59.160 --> 00:28:00.839 over in Southeast Asia, we see that when they're in the trees, they 393 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:04.920 already are walking upright, and they branch walk. Some of the tenderest leaves 394 00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:08.240 and fruits are out on the ends of branches, so using their longer arms, 395 00:28:08.359 --> 00:28:12.160 they will actually walk along the branches, supporting themselves by holding on with 396 00:28:12.279 --> 00:28:15.400 one or two hands to the branch above, and then they can also jump 397 00:28:15.480 --> 00:28:18.640 across easily from the ends of the branches to the next tree to carry on 398 00:28:18.759 --> 00:28:22.799 feeding. So the view is that this is a physique that is pre adapted 399 00:28:22.839 --> 00:28:26.920 to bipedalism. Their bodies are already part adapted to an upright posture, and 400 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:30.839 the pelvis is already in a situation where they can support themselves on two legs. 401 00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:33.960 The working idea would be that our ancestors went through a similar stage where 402 00:28:33.960 --> 00:28:37.880 they were branch walking feeding in the trees, beginning to regularly get their body 403 00:28:37.960 --> 00:28:41.240 into an upright position, and then when they come down between trees. The 404 00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:45.880 trees maybe start to thin out if areas become dry, and they stay upright 405 00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:48.000 as they walk between the trees until they get to the next clump of trees. 406 00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:53.200 I don't think we really have a very convincing evolutionary alternative scenario. Consider 407 00:28:53.279 --> 00:28:59.119 that this adaption to bipedalism takes place over millions of years. If you imagine 408 00:28:59.160 --> 00:29:02.559 a creature that is law fours, what's going to make it start walking upright 409 00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:06.119 and do it for long enough for the skeleton to be modified by evolution to 410 00:29:06.200 --> 00:29:10.160 become fully bipedal. They have to survive along the way of that process. 411 00:29:10.519 --> 00:29:15.759 Very difficult to imagine. People like Darwin originally speculated that bipedalism came out of 412 00:29:15.799 --> 00:29:18.200 the need to use tools or carry things, and it's certainly useful to do 413 00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:22.559 those things once you are bipedal. But what's going to modify a skeleton, 414 00:29:22.759 --> 00:29:26.359 modify the musculature and all of that, and the way that evolution tells us 415 00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:30.680 that primates evolve over the course of generations. Taking that point as to the 416 00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:34.519 origins of learning to walk, it leads into the discussion on two Homo fossil 417 00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:41.839 groups found in Southeast Asia. Homoforesiensists on the island of Floors Indonesia and Losonensis 418 00:29:41.920 --> 00:29:45.240 in Calow Cave on the island of Luzon and the Philippines. Enforce insists with 419 00:29:45.319 --> 00:29:49.440 an adult height at somewhere only a bit over a meter tall. Forceensus caught 420 00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:53.000 the attention of the world public back in two thousand and three, we were 421 00:29:53.079 --> 00:29:57.000 presented with the discovery of a primitive creature. The more curious members of the 422 00:29:57.079 --> 00:30:00.960 public who dig deeper into this discovery are usually told that these hobbits were a 423 00:30:02.039 --> 00:30:06.720 product of evolutionary dwarfism, often found on islands where larger creatures are reduced in 424 00:30:06.839 --> 00:30:11.599 size from resource constraints and smaller gene pools. Always present in discussions about Floorsiensis 425 00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:15.759 is a focus on their small primitive brains. We're beginning to learn that size 426 00:30:15.799 --> 00:30:19.160 may not matter as much as the layout of the brain when we compare ourselves 427 00:30:19.240 --> 00:30:23.839 to our ancestors and their core capacities. More recently, in twenty nineteen, 428 00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:29.720 archaeologists announced a fossil discovery found almost two thousand miles away in the Philippines. 429 00:30:29.880 --> 00:30:33.960 Currently given a species name, Homo luzon insists that has a lot of similarities 430 00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:37.599 to Floresiensis. Until their discovery, it was thought that the first hominins or 431 00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:41.359 humans to arrive in Southeast Asia were Homo erectus, who is known to have 432 00:30:41.519 --> 00:30:47.200 left Africa about two million years ago. It's notable that some experts argue Floorsi 433 00:30:47.319 --> 00:30:51.680 insists was able to walk but not run, and that Floorsiensis humorus the upper 434 00:30:51.759 --> 00:30:55.319 arm bone was longer than its femur. This is typical of a body type 435 00:30:55.319 --> 00:30:59.519 adapted for climbing. The wrist bones also point to climbing. That kind of 436 00:30:59.559 --> 00:31:03.720 evolutionary branch goes back closer to somewhere beyond two and a half to three million 437 00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:07.559 years ago and would force a rethinking about which Homo species locomotion style first left 438 00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:12.519 Africa and possibly set the stage to influence and hybridize with African relatives who came 439 00:31:12.599 --> 00:31:18.079 after. FeSi insists and Luzon insists are an area where there is no consensus 440 00:31:18.119 --> 00:31:21.880 among the experts, and the public might find the schools of thought illustrative about 441 00:31:21.880 --> 00:31:26.960 the frontiers of our understanding about the human evolutionary story. Some experts argue that 442 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:30.880 the most convincing scenario is that the Floresiensis material is derived from Homo erectus, 443 00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:36.440 that this is a dwarf form of Homo Erectus that somehow got to flores underwent 444 00:31:36.519 --> 00:31:41.319 dwarfing and retained some erectus characteristics. We know Erectus left Africa approximately two million 445 00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:45.279 years ago. Some of the dental features of Floresiensists have been suggested to be 446 00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:49.759 clear evidence of an Erectus ancestry. For this idea to work, foresi insists 447 00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:56.039 would have needed to have an ancestor who independently developed or redeveloped basal features features 448 00:31:56.079 --> 00:32:00.039 which look more like ancestral features of previously developed species in Africa. As you've 449 00:32:00.079 --> 00:32:05.680 mentioned the body proportions, the upper body that seems to show adaptations for climbing. 450 00:32:05.960 --> 00:32:08.920 Perhaps Floresiensis may have gone back into the trees for feeding. That's a 451 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:14.880 possibility. This dwarfing process would have had to occur subsequently in the island migration 452 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:17.720 process in Southeast Asia. That is a scenario which some people who know their 453 00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:22.680 Homo Erectus fossils will argue as there that's one school of opinion on Floresiensis. 454 00:32:23.200 --> 00:32:27.440 And on the other hand, you have some experts working along the lines you've 455 00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:30.400 alluded to that actually this is evidence of a pre erectus exit from Africa. 456 00:32:31.079 --> 00:32:36.359 A Homo habilis or even an Australopittho scene grade came out of Africa somehow got 457 00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:38.680 all the way over to Southeast Asia. In terms of fossils we know about 458 00:32:38.839 --> 00:32:43.240 and maybe on luzon in the Philippines as well. For Homo luzon ensis. 459 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:46.200 In favor of that, we've got these basal features and the wrist bones and 460 00:32:46.319 --> 00:32:51.359 in the pelvis and the shoulders and the smaller brain. That's a pretty convincing 461 00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:53.440 scenario. But if you agree with that, then you've got to conclude that 462 00:32:53.519 --> 00:32:59.200 some convergent or independently similar evolution in their teeth toward Homo erectus had to happen. 463 00:33:00.039 --> 00:33:04.000 Aspects of the skull look. Erectuslike Floresiensis, has a small face that's 464 00:33:04.039 --> 00:33:07.920 tucked under the cranial vault, which required some derivation. Fooresiensis would have had 465 00:33:07.960 --> 00:33:13.279 to have both independent similar evolution to erectus and it returned to some more basal 466 00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:17.440 elements of their ancestors. There is a compromise view that Foresiensis is the product 467 00:33:17.480 --> 00:33:22.640 of a basal erectus. Some of the erectus skeleton fossils found at a site 468 00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:27.000 called Dmanassey in the country of Georgia. They're much smaller brained. One of 469 00:33:27.039 --> 00:33:30.359 the fossils has a brain size not too different from Floorsiensis. We could be 470 00:33:30.440 --> 00:33:35.200 starting from an erectus that's smaller bodied, smaller brained, and maybe than it 471 00:33:35.240 --> 00:33:38.039 could have gotten across to Flores eventually and evolved and survived there for more than 472 00:33:38.119 --> 00:33:42.680 a million years. We have to bear in mind that we actually don't know 473 00:33:42.759 --> 00:33:45.039 the full anatomy of erectus anyway. So what were the wrist bones like in 474 00:33:45.160 --> 00:33:50.200 Demanasse where they like those found in Flores. We simply don't know yet because 475 00:33:50.200 --> 00:33:52.880 they're not preserved so far. In any of these cases, you've also got 476 00:33:52.960 --> 00:33:57.440 the mystery of how they even got to Flores. There are no land bridges 477 00:33:57.480 --> 00:34:01.559 that appear when sea levels dropped during ice age. The people who argue Foresi 478 00:34:01.640 --> 00:34:06.720 insists was more closely related to humans via the erectus line suggest there was a 479 00:34:06.759 --> 00:34:10.280 capability of maybe using watercraft to get to Flores, But the other option is 480 00:34:10.360 --> 00:34:15.000 that its arrival on Flores was accidental. Tectonically, this part of Indonesia is 481 00:34:15.079 --> 00:34:20.599 one of the most active areas in the world caused by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. 482 00:34:21.039 --> 00:34:23.039 There was a major tsunami in the Indian Ocean in two thousand four. 483 00:34:23.320 --> 00:34:28.400 People were found at sea days later, surviving on clumps of vegetation. That 484 00:34:28.599 --> 00:34:31.039 was something that happened in the last twenty years. When you've got a time 485 00:34:31.119 --> 00:34:35.800 scale of thousands or hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions of years, these 486 00:34:35.960 --> 00:34:38.480 rare events can happen. We know that's how many other animals must have gotten 487 00:34:38.519 --> 00:34:44.559 across to these islands between Java and Papua New Guinea Australia. It's possible that 488 00:34:44.679 --> 00:34:49.000 some ancestors of Floresi insists, were maybe foraging in mangrove swamps on the coast, 489 00:34:49.239 --> 00:34:52.039 and a tidal wave ripped a whole area away, and their left in 490 00:34:52.119 --> 00:34:55.199 there and somehow miraculously, a few weeks later they arrived on Flores or on 491 00:34:55.280 --> 00:35:00.400 another island. Because it could have been accomplished in stages. It doesn't have 492 00:35:00.519 --> 00:35:04.480 to be straight all the way to Flores, whether rafted by design or accident. 493 00:35:05.199 --> 00:35:07.519 There is this other piece of evidence that we identify with human advancement. 494 00:35:08.159 --> 00:35:13.760 Archaeologists found at two sites on the island of Flora's tools associated with butchering meat 495 00:35:13.800 --> 00:35:17.679 that are seven hundred thousand and even over a million years old. With Flooresiensis, 496 00:35:17.880 --> 00:35:21.719 we have a body that was perhaps enabled to run, yet able to 497 00:35:21.800 --> 00:35:24.360 walk and was better suited for climbing. We have a brain described as tiny 498 00:35:24.480 --> 00:35:29.800 yet able to make tools. Turning to the twenty thirteen discovery of Homo Niltti 499 00:35:29.880 --> 00:35:32.239 in South Africa, we have two hundred thirty to three hundred thousand year old 500 00:35:32.280 --> 00:35:37.039 evidence of another Homo species that had curvature on the finger bones that is associated 501 00:35:37.079 --> 00:35:42.039 with primates who spend their time climbing, and also a hand bone structure that 502 00:35:42.079 --> 00:35:45.320 allows people to bring complexity in their tool making and as a foot structure similar 503 00:35:45.360 --> 00:35:51.199 to ours. Like Floresiensis, Niltti also has a brain much smaller than ours, 504 00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:54.079 but also it has a similar brain structure. Tools have been found in 505 00:35:54.159 --> 00:35:59.920 the area that the archaeologists believe may have been created by Niletti. The archaeological 506 00:36:00.159 --> 00:36:02.159 team that is working on the Nolti site tells us there is evidence of a 507 00:36:02.280 --> 00:36:07.719 culture with traits that we and our cousin species will recognize, returning to the 508 00:36:07.800 --> 00:36:12.480 same cave to deposit their dead and using fire to navigate it. Neander Tals 509 00:36:12.559 --> 00:36:15.840 left a record of depositing dozens of their dead in a cave in Spain called 510 00:36:15.880 --> 00:36:20.320 Sima de los Jusos about four hundred thirty thousand years ago. Whether what we 511 00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:23.159 are looking at in these caves are cases of mass murder or ritual or something 512 00:36:23.239 --> 00:36:27.880 else, we just don't have the evidence to say. In Brunical Cave in 513 00:36:27.960 --> 00:36:30.920 France, we have evidence of meander Tal use of fire and potentially habitation in 514 00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:36.360 the cave at least one hundred seventy five thousand years ago. Remembering the debt, 515 00:36:36.639 --> 00:36:39.239 of course, is not unique to US. Elephants visit and warn the 516 00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:45.679 remains of their relatives and herd members throughout the decomposition process. Chimpanzee mothers will 517 00:36:45.719 --> 00:36:50.320 carry their dead infants with them for days. Valtia is very intriguing. We 518 00:36:50.400 --> 00:36:54.239 can explain the survival of foesiensis long term and its divergent evolution in isolation, 519 00:36:54.480 --> 00:36:59.760 and Homo sapiens doesn't get there until maybe the last fifty thousand years, and 520 00:37:00.159 --> 00:37:04.039 Floorsi insists disappears. But in the case of Milidi, we've got it in 521 00:37:04.119 --> 00:37:07.280 South Africa, on a continent where we're pretty sure Homo sapiens had already evolved 522 00:37:07.360 --> 00:37:12.920 where other Homo species were present, and yet Milidia is surviving in South Africa 523 00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:15.679 with an ape sized brain, successfully and maybe spending its time deep in the 524 00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:20.480 cave systems there. I have been one of the critics of the intentional burial 525 00:37:20.559 --> 00:37:23.559 disposal idea because I've argued that how complex could the behavior be of a creature 526 00:37:23.639 --> 00:37:28.079 with a brain the size of a chimpanzee or a gorilla. But I'm more 527 00:37:28.119 --> 00:37:31.320 than happy to be surprised by much greater complexity and Homo niltti when peer reviewed 528 00:37:31.360 --> 00:37:35.639 research makes the case for it. There's a big emphasis on the size of 529 00:37:35.679 --> 00:37:39.239 the brains of our relatives in the public and expert conversation on human origins for 530 00:37:39.360 --> 00:37:45.239 comparing ourselves to our ancestors and cousins. In the case of FLORESI insists in 531 00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:49.960 la, the public conversation keeps returning to how small their brains are. Valetti 532 00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:52.880 had a brain size of six hundred milli leaders each of us has around thirteen 533 00:37:53.039 --> 00:37:55.920 hundred. Could that be a bit of a red herring in terms of their 534 00:37:55.920 --> 00:38:00.800 core capacities? Should we be putting more emphasis on the layout of the core 535 00:38:00.880 --> 00:38:05.079 brain structures? Does that deserve to get some more emphasis in comparison to us. 536 00:38:05.559 --> 00:38:08.119 The whole question of brain size and complexity of behavior has been a long 537 00:38:08.199 --> 00:38:14.000 running debate. Neanderthals and sapiens have relatively big brains. In the Homo family, 538 00:38:14.320 --> 00:38:17.920 you can see a rough correlation between increasing behavioral complexity and stone tools and 539 00:38:19.039 --> 00:38:22.119 the size of the brain. It's a rough correlation, not a one to 540 00:38:22.199 --> 00:38:24.280 one. That's why I think the letty is going to be very important, 541 00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:29.800 because if the research team demonstrates complexity of behavior, I think it will certainly 542 00:38:29.880 --> 00:38:32.079 put a nail in the coffin of the idea that a small hominin brain can 543 00:38:32.159 --> 00:38:37.000 accomplish complex things. Given that, and going back to some of the tree 544 00:38:37.079 --> 00:38:40.239 dwelling morphologies retained, is it fair to wonder now whether the intelligence that humans 545 00:38:40.320 --> 00:38:44.760 tend to prize about themselves and use as a marker of our difference from other 546 00:38:44.840 --> 00:38:49.119 animals was developed in the trees rather than exclusively on the ground. We know 547 00:38:49.239 --> 00:38:53.000 that young chimpanzee females make dolls, for example, with which they simulate child 548 00:38:53.079 --> 00:38:57.719 rearing. I think even looking at chimps and guerrillas, they have clear intelligence 549 00:38:57.800 --> 00:39:01.000 greater than most other creatures most of the mammals. Certainly it was there in 550 00:39:01.039 --> 00:39:05.599 the common ancestor. So I think the common ancestor of us and chimps about 551 00:39:05.599 --> 00:39:09.960 seven million years ago already had complex behavior and potentially even toolmaking behavior at that 552 00:39:10.079 --> 00:39:14.480 early stage. So I think, yes, they could have started to develop 553 00:39:14.519 --> 00:39:16.960 in the trees. And as I say, orangutans are intelligent too, so 554 00:39:17.079 --> 00:39:21.679 I think the common ancestor would have had that degree of intelligence. But there 555 00:39:21.719 --> 00:39:23.960 are arguments that by the time we get to Austrilla epiphocus, there has been 556 00:39:24.039 --> 00:39:29.719 some restructuring of the brain, which implies maybe a reorganization for more complex thought. 557 00:39:30.079 --> 00:39:31.800 We now know that there are at least as many as five distinct human 558 00:39:31.840 --> 00:39:37.320 species that were living on Earth as recently as seventy thousand years ago, Homo 559 00:39:37.400 --> 00:39:43.639 sapiens, neandertal Ensis, denisova, Forgiensis, and luzon Enzis, and we 560 00:39:43.760 --> 00:39:46.639 can demonstrate through several lines of evidence that they not only had different anatomy, 561 00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:52.039 but that they also had varying physical capacities and behavioral traits or tendencies. A 562 00:39:52.119 --> 00:39:55.880 one meter tall human species in Indonesia had a foot that made running difficult. 563 00:39:57.159 --> 00:40:00.639 Research tells us that Neanderthals tended to be aggressive, be mourning people, and 564 00:40:00.760 --> 00:40:05.480 have depression, and that they have repetitive behaviors. On top of this, 565 00:40:05.599 --> 00:40:09.320 we also know that Sapiens across the planet today carry genomic material from hybridizing with 566 00:40:09.400 --> 00:40:13.920 at least six Homo species, some of whom we think when extinct as an 567 00:40:13.960 --> 00:40:17.559 independent, separate species long before seventy thousand years ago. Two of these species 568 00:40:17.639 --> 00:40:22.159 we can name Neanderthal and Dennis event and the other four science hasn't named yet, 569 00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:27.519 but we have genomic evidence for these mystery ancestors. It's not yet part 570 00:40:27.599 --> 00:40:30.480 of the public conversation, but can you see a future where people might identify 571 00:40:30.599 --> 00:40:35.920 themselves and their behaviors as typical of their family, religion, regional origins, 572 00:40:36.039 --> 00:40:40.440 and also of their inheritances from ancestor species in an environment where understanding ourselves strengthens 573 00:40:40.480 --> 00:40:45.800 the bonds of cooperation and provides us with a universalizing framework of relatability. There's 574 00:40:45.840 --> 00:40:51.239 definitely evidence of Sapiens interbreeding with Neanderthals, and that is still thought to be 575 00:40:51.320 --> 00:40:55.719 one fairly closely related group of Neanderthals that hybridized with Homo sapiens. But for 576 00:40:55.800 --> 00:41:01.039 Dennis events. It's at least three different population groups who diversified approximately three hundred 577 00:41:01.079 --> 00:41:06.679 thousand years ago that interbred with Homo sapiens in different parts of Asia and Southeast 578 00:41:06.719 --> 00:41:09.440 Asia. And back to your question about identity, Yes, I think that 579 00:41:09.519 --> 00:41:13.880 we know from studies of what the neander tal dna is doing in US today 580 00:41:13.920 --> 00:41:16.840 that bits of neander tal dna are related, for example, to whether you're 581 00:41:16.840 --> 00:41:20.960 a morning or an evening person. We know that some bits of neander tal 582 00:41:21.079 --> 00:41:24.639 dna have given protection against certain illnesses the age of menopause, in the start 583 00:41:24.679 --> 00:41:30.079 of menstruation. Addictive behavior appears to be related in some cases to bits of 584 00:41:30.159 --> 00:41:35.280 neander tal dna. There are suggestions that autism, schizophrenia, and certainly autoimmune 585 00:41:35.320 --> 00:41:38.400 diseases they also are influenced to an extent by the presence of neander tal dna, 586 00:41:38.639 --> 00:41:43.559 and probably we will find similar things for denisive in DNA. So it's 587 00:41:43.599 --> 00:41:49.280 certainly affecting us our core biology, our personalities and for DNIS events. In 588 00:41:49.400 --> 00:41:52.519 some populations, there's double the amount of dennisive in DNA than neander tal dna. 589 00:41:53.400 --> 00:41:59.000 Populations in Southeast Asia have neandertal DNA at the same level as say Europeans 590 00:41:59.119 --> 00:42:01.440 or Asians, but they've got an additional maybe four percent of dennis of in 591 00:42:01.559 --> 00:42:06.199 DNA, So theoretically we imagine that it's going to have an even greater effect. 592 00:42:06.440 --> 00:42:08.679 We know it affects the immune systems, but it may have other effects 593 00:42:08.719 --> 00:42:15.159 as well. Stay tuned for more Sasquatch Odyssey will be right back after these 594 00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:21.760 messages. In sasquatch research, footprints in the opinions of many is the best 595 00:42:21.840 --> 00:42:24.639 evidence we have in the quest to prove the existence of the species. I 596 00:42:24.760 --> 00:42:30.639 found this next article intriguing because it focuses on the world's oldest Homo sapiens footprint, 597 00:42:30.880 --> 00:42:34.920 down on South Africa's Cape South Coast. This article is written by Chris 598 00:42:35.039 --> 00:42:38.000 Helms. Just over two decades ago, as the New Millennium began, it 599 00:42:38.079 --> 00:42:43.199 seemed that tracks left by our ancient human ancestors dating back more than about fifty 600 00:42:43.280 --> 00:42:46.599 thousand years were excessively rare. Only four sites had been reported in the whole 601 00:42:46.639 --> 00:42:52.159 of Africa at that time. Two were from East Africa we Dali and Tanzania 602 00:42:52.800 --> 00:42:55.800 and Kubai, four in Kenya, and two were from South Africa, Bahoon 603 00:42:55.880 --> 00:43:00.280 and Langebian. In fact, the Nahoon site, reported in nineteen sixty six, 604 00:43:00.599 --> 00:43:05.719 was the first hominin track side ever to be described. In twenty twenty 605 00:43:05.719 --> 00:43:08.679 three, the situation is very different. It appears that people were not looking 606 00:43:08.760 --> 00:43:12.800 hard enough, or we're not looking in the right places. Today, the 607 00:43:12.880 --> 00:43:16.360 African tally for dated hominin ignosites, a term that includes both tracks and other 608 00:43:16.440 --> 00:43:22.039 traces older than fifty thousand years, stands at fourteen. These can conveniently be 609 00:43:22.119 --> 00:43:25.400 divided into an East African cluster of five sites and a South African cluster from 610 00:43:25.400 --> 00:43:30.440 the Cape Coast of nine sites. There are further ten sites elsewhere in the 611 00:43:30.480 --> 00:43:35.440 world, including the UK and the Arabian Peninsula. Given that relatively few skeletal 612 00:43:35.519 --> 00:43:38.480 hominin remains have been found on the Cape Coast, the traces left by our 613 00:43:38.559 --> 00:43:43.840 human ancestors as they moved about ancient landscapes are a useful way to complement and 614 00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:47.960 enhance our understanding of ancient hominins in Africa. In a recently published article in 615 00:43:49.039 --> 00:43:52.360 IGNOS, the International Journal of Trace Fossils, we provided the ages of seven 616 00:43:52.440 --> 00:43:57.719 newly dated hominin ignosites that we have identified in the past five years on South 617 00:43:57.800 --> 00:44:01.440 Africa's Cape South Coast. These sites now form part of the South African cluster 618 00:44:01.559 --> 00:44:06.199 of nine sites. We found that the sites ranged in age. The most 619 00:44:06.280 --> 00:44:09.679 recent dates back about seventy one thousand years. The oldest, which dates back 620 00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:14.360 one hundred and fifty three thousand years, is one of the more remarkable finds 621 00:44:14.440 --> 00:44:16.920 recorded in this study. It is the oldest footprint thus far attributed to our 622 00:44:16.960 --> 00:44:22.519 species. The new dates corroborate the archaeological record, along with other evidence from 623 00:44:22.519 --> 00:44:28.000 the area and time period, including the development of sophisticated stone tools, art, 624 00:44:28.159 --> 00:44:30.440 jewelry, and harvesting of shellfish. It confirms that the Cape South Coast 625 00:44:30.559 --> 00:44:35.880 was an area in which early anatomically modern humans survived, evolved, and thrived 626 00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:40.000 before spreading out of Africa to other continents. There are significant differences between the 627 00:44:40.079 --> 00:44:45.119 East African and South African track site clusters. The East African sites are much 628 00:44:45.159 --> 00:44:49.760 older Lee Doali. The is three point six million years old, and the 629 00:44:49.840 --> 00:44:52.840 youngest is just over a half million years old. The tracks were not made 630 00:44:52.840 --> 00:44:58.960 by Homo sapiens, but by earlier species such as australopithesines, Homo heidelbergensis, 631 00:44:59.039 --> 00:45:02.000 and Homo erectus. For the most part, the surfaces on which the East 632 00:45:02.079 --> 00:45:07.000 African tracks occur have had to be laboriously and meticulously excavated and exposed. The 633 00:45:07.079 --> 00:45:12.239 South African sites on the Cape Coast, by contrast, are substantially younger. 634 00:45:12.800 --> 00:45:15.280 All have been attributed to Homo sapiens, and the tracks tend to be fully 635 00:45:15.320 --> 00:45:20.239 exposed when they're discovered in rocks known as the oleanites, which are the cemented 636 00:45:20.360 --> 00:45:24.280 versions of ancient dunes. Excavation is therefore not usually considered, and because of 637 00:45:24.320 --> 00:45:29.159 the site's exposure to the elements and the relatively coarse nature of dune sand, 638 00:45:29.360 --> 00:45:32.480 they aren't usually as well preserved as the East African sites. They are also 639 00:45:32.599 --> 00:45:37.360 vulnerable to erosion, so we often have to work fast to record and analyze 640 00:45:37.400 --> 00:45:40.199 them before they are destroyed by the ocean and the wind. While this limits 641 00:45:40.239 --> 00:45:45.559 the potential for detailed interpretation, we can have the deposits dated. That's where 642 00:45:45.599 --> 00:45:51.320 optically stimulated luminescence comes in. A key challenge when studying the paleorecord, track, 643 00:45:51.400 --> 00:45:54.119 wasts, fossils, or any other kind of ancient sediment is determining how 644 00:45:54.199 --> 00:45:58.559 old the materials are. Without this, it is difficult to evaluate the wider 645 00:45:58.639 --> 00:46:02.480 significance of a fine or to interpret the climatic changes that create the geological record. 646 00:46:04.199 --> 00:46:07.480 And the case of the Cape South coastial lanites, the dating method of 647 00:46:07.559 --> 00:46:12.800 choice is often optically stimulated luminescence. This method of dating shows how long ago 648 00:46:12.880 --> 00:46:15.280 a grain of sand was exposed to sunlight, in other words, how long 649 00:46:15.360 --> 00:46:20.320 that section of sediment has been buried. Given how the tracks in this study 650 00:46:20.360 --> 00:46:23.679 were formed impressions made on wet sand followed by burial with new blowing sand, 651 00:46:23.800 --> 00:46:28.039 it is a good method as we can be reasonably confident that the dating clock 652 00:46:28.079 --> 00:46:31.360 started at about the same time the trackway was created. The Cape South Coast 653 00:46:31.480 --> 00:46:37.400 is a great place to apply optically stimulated luminescence. Firstly, the sediments are 654 00:46:37.519 --> 00:46:42.119 rich in quartz grains, which produce lots of luminescence. Secondly, the abundant 655 00:46:42.159 --> 00:46:45.599 sunshine wide beaches and ready wind transport of sand to form coastal dunes mean any 656 00:46:45.639 --> 00:46:51.079 pre existing luminescence signals are fully removed prior to the burial event of interest, 657 00:46:51.360 --> 00:46:54.800 making for reliable age estiments. This method has underpinned much of the dating of 658 00:46:54.880 --> 00:46:59.400 previous finds in the area. The overall date range of Our findings for the 659 00:46:59.440 --> 00:47:04.280 Hominanites, about one hundred fifty three thousand to seventy one thousand years in age, 660 00:47:04.519 --> 00:47:08.320 is consistent with ages and previously reported studies from similar geological deposits in the 661 00:47:08.360 --> 00:47:13.159 region. The one hundred fifty three thousand year old track was found in the 662 00:47:13.199 --> 00:47:16.119 Garden Route National Park, west of the coastal town of Nisana on the Cape 663 00:47:16.199 --> 00:47:21.880 South coast. The two previously dated South African sites, Nahoon and Langeba, 664 00:47:22.119 --> 00:47:25.239 have yielded ages of about one hundred twenty four thousand years and one hundred seventeen 665 00:47:25.320 --> 00:47:29.800 thousand years, respectively. The work of our research team, based in the 666 00:47:29.880 --> 00:47:35.039 African Center for Coastal Paleoscience at Nelson Mendeli University in South Africa, is not 667 00:47:35.199 --> 00:47:38.000 done. We suspect that further Homan and ignosites are waiting to be discovered on 668 00:47:38.079 --> 00:47:43.199 the Cape South coast and elsewhere on the coast. The search also needs to 669 00:47:43.280 --> 00:47:46.000 be extended to older deposits in the region, ranging an age from four hundred 670 00:47:46.039 --> 00:47:50.679 thousand years to more than two million years. A decade from now, we 671 00:47:50.840 --> 00:47:53.159 expect the list of ancient homan and ignosites to be a lot longer than it 672 00:47:53.280 --> 00:47:57.400 is at present, and that scientists will be able to learn a great deal 673 00:47:57.480 --> 00:48:01.320 more about our ancient ancestors and the landscapes they occupied. This article makes me 674 00:48:01.400 --> 00:48:06.519 wonder will those that come after us be studying the footprints of the Sasquatch that 675 00:48:06.599 --> 00:48:10.119 are found here in North America fifty thousand years from now. If nothing else, 676 00:48:10.719 --> 00:48:15.519 I have learned that anything is possible. They say, you don't wantta 677 00:48:15.719 --> 00:48:28.000 go home, but you can't stay. I don't want to be We're all 678 00:48:28.079 --> 00:48:58.519 out that chiest job, chime everything, color, bride, baby Joy for 679 00:48:58.760 --> 00:49:39.199 me to stay right there. You call it right away, says side says 680 00:49:44.920 --> 00:50:16.280 about time out right for men call it also fassssssssssss