Paranthropus at ICM
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 27th, 2010
PhotoExpert’s donation of the Paranthropus (a/k/a Zinjanthropus or “Nutcracker Man”) bust has arrived. Our deep appreciation to him for this item!
Can’t write too much as I’m still without power and heat after last night’s near-hurricane force winds knocked down trees throughout Portland, Maine. My street is still blocked off.
But I have these photos to share, from the International Cryptozoology Museum. The bust is from Skulls Unlimited. It is sculpted by Eric Humphries, and hand painted. It is beautiful.
I tend to think in the direction of Paranthropus versus Gigantopithecus for the fossil candidate most like Sasquatch.
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Loren Coleman no longer writes for Cryptomundo. His archived posts remain here at Cryptomundo.
I wonder, how big was a Paranthropus in reality? How big the Meganthropus really was?
I’m not sure which theory I prefer concerning sasquatch ancestry (suspending my doubt concerning the existence of sasquatch momentarily).
It would seem superficially that Gigantopithecus should get the nod. It theoretically seems to be of the (ballpark) size we find in bigfoot reports. Scientists assume it stood over 9 ft. tall and weighed over 1200 lbs.
Also, Giganto ranged throughout southeast Asia which would have made it a possible candidate for Bering Strait migration to North America.
This giant ape also seemed to co-exist with early humans and some fossil remains date back only 100,000 years, merely yesteryear, geologically speaking.
On the other hand, Gigantopithecus was an ape, and like contemporary (non-cryptid) apes, it’s locomotion on land consisted of knuckle-walking (at least, this is the scientific consensus). If this is the case, this monster ape probably resembled a humongous gorilla or orangutan and not so much the striding, bipedal sasquatch. (Wouldn’t 100,000 years be too short a time for a large evolutionary change to exclusive bipedalism?)
So we have Paranthropus as an alternative ancestor to bigfoot. It is preferred, I’m guessing, because it is transitionally between ape and human in morphology. This certainly would put it in good position as a candidate for sasquatch ancestry, given the bipedalism and human appearing footprints of bigfoot.
Where this alternative seems to falter is in its size, in males it probably stood under 5 ft. tall, females even smaller, its time frame, it existed over a million years ago, and its known range, Africa. Yet, we could reasonably suggest that evolutionary change over a million years could affect a significant move to larger body types.
If that has been the case, and Paranthropus is ancestral sasquatch, without an Asian fossil record through the advancing ages, we must assume as it grew larger, it grew more rare.
I wish Loren would post more reasons why he has parted with his cryptozoological colleagues
concerning Gigantophithecus and sasquatch.
Wow! I was not expecting to have the photos up so quickly. To my surprise, I came home after a hard day at work and this post was here. You made my day Loren, although I am sorry for the major inconveniences you are having due to the foul weather.
Thanks for sharing those photos with me and all of us here at Cryptomundo. The bust is beautiful, as you stated!
It was my pleasure in making this donation to the ICM. I believe educating the young museum goers is extremely important.
By the way, I lean more towards the Gigantopithecus camp. However, in fairness to those in the Paranthropus camp, I believe they should be represented at the museum because of the arguments that can be made for BF by that camp. The only problem is, there are no Giganto museum quality busts at Skulls Unlimited. I wish there were. The sculpting and handpainting by the artist, Eric Humphries is exceptional.
Loren, or any of my fellow Cryptomundo readers here: If you come across a Gigantopithecus museum quality bust, I would like to make another donation to the ICM, to represent the camp I lean towards. That way, we can have fair representation at the ICM by both camps. If you come across such a bust, please let Loren know and I will be more than happy to make another donation to the museum.
It’s beautiful Loren!