Little Foot with Richard Freeman

What we have learned from Bigfoot is that a significant population of rather smart primates who rely on a completely different ecological niche have little trouble avoiding interaction with us. They know how and when to hang low. More, our dogs are scared of them.

Some time back I posted an excellent report on a small primate in Central Park no less that was clearly evading observation. It made clear that such a creature may well exist and that its foot size would not elicit any attention or controversy. Thus the driving characteristic of the Bigfoot was missing.

In short, this would be a far more difficult creature to track down.

Although we have this surprising occurrence in Central Park, the creature has plenty of remote country to occupy and avoid any form of human contact. Without large colonies we would find it difficult to locate even a denning site.

None of this spells out what they eat. The easy assumption is deer and rabbits with selected plants and fruit in season. We also can presume grubs and its like which are likely plentiful in the forest. There are plenty of options.

Richard’s on the trail of Littlefoot

http://naturalplane.blogspot.ca/2012/09/just-facts-melbourne-ufo.html

NOTE: here's an article about cryptozoologist, author, friend and colleague Richard Freeman

RICHARD Freeman is a long-time pal of mine.

Over the years we’ve shared conference platforms together, chased hairy ape-like monsters and generally engaged in a variety of other pursuits, both mundane and bizarre.

Richard is one of the world’s greatest experts in the field of cryptozoology – the study of mystery animals – and as regular readers know has written quite a few books on the subject.

His latest contribution is entitled ORANG PENDEK: Sumatra's Forgotten Ape

In it, he details his ongoing search for one of the earth’s most enigmatic and elusive creatures.

When people think of hairy bipedal mystery animals most pictureBigfoot, but, as Richard points out, “for every Bigfoot there’s a Littlefoot”.

What on earth could he mean? Well, the Orang Pendek fits that description perfectly, for most estimates place it at around 5ft in height.

With its nut-brown hair and immensely powerful limbs, the Orang Pendek roams the jungles of Sumatra and has, up till now, managed to avoid being captured and taxonomically classified.

Some scholars deny that the Orang Pendek exists, but they are slowly dwindling.

Some experts have actually seen the Sumatran mystery ape themselves, and are interviewed by Richard in his book.

The creature, if not seen, is nevertheless often heard. Those who have been so privileged say that it utters something akin to a long groan followed by two short grunts.

Tales of “Little Men of the Forest” go back centuries, and can be found in countries such as Peru, Brazil, New Guinea, Indonesia and Australia to name but a few.

They may not all be of the Orang Pendek type, but some of them may be related.

One creature similar to the Orang Pendek is the Watu wa Miti of Zimbabwe and Mozambique, which has a terrible reputation for being hostile towards humans, particularly women.  

The Orang Pendek is said to be highly intelligent, a fact which would seem to be supported by its ability to avoid detection despite monumental efforts by the likes of Richard and his cryptid-hunting colleagues.

Another red-haired dwarf ape is the legendary Nain Rouge, which is said to inhabit the more remote parts of the State of Michigan in the US.

Like the Watu wa Miti, the Nain Rouge can be extremely aggressive towards humans.

Intriguingly, the Nain Rouge is said to have a green, leaf-shaped patch of skin under each eye, similar to the blue patches seen in the same place beneath the eyes of a mandrill baboon.

Is it really possible that not one but possibly dozens of diminutive ape-like species could still exist, undetected, in various parts of the globe?

It most certainly is.

We tend to think of the USA as being predominantly urbanised, or at least well travelled, but the truth is that literally thousands of square miles of that nation are unexplored.

One question often raised by sceptics is the issue of carcasses.

Why, if such creatures exist, do we never seem to find the bodies of deceased specimens?

One reason is that nature is remarkably efficient at disposing of them, even large carcasses such as those of bears.

Flesh rots or is devoured by scavengers, bones are covered with organic detritus or dragged away by larger carnivores and, often within 48 hours depending on the location and conditions, there will be little left to see. - shieldsgazette

The remains of the apeman, dubbed Little Foot, were discovered in a cave complex at Sterkfontein by a local South African team in 1997. Its bones preserved in sediment layers, it is the most complete hominid fossil skeleton ever found. 

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/little-foot-22/ 

(Photo Credit: Alf Latham and used with his permission)

Redating news published today calls for a younger age for the unknown species of Australopithecus popularly called "Little Foot," or technically "Stw 573."

Initially, the species had been tentatively dated to three to four million years before present, but the new findings show the small upright Australopithecus died only about 2.2 million years ago.

Why is this important? Articles about it are appearing with the headline that says it all: "Ancient Ape Ruled Out Of Man’s Ancestral Line" (see an example here).

These news items summarize it this way:

"The first recognisable stone tools appeared in Africa around 2.6 million years ago, but they were not made by Australopiths. Rather it is thought the first tool maker was Homo habilis, whose evolution is believed to have led directly to man. Rather than being older than Homo habilis – and a possible direct ancestor – Little Foot is more likely a distant cousin."

One of the analysts, Dr. Alf Latham who assisted in these findings (see his photograph below), emails me that “the skull is now out and on show in Joburg.” (“Joburg” is short for the City of Johannesburg, South Africa.)

Over at Talk Origins, they make some interesting observations about the hands and feet of "Little Foot":

"The hand bones of Stw 573 seem to be like those of modern humans in being relatively unspecialized, having a short palm and fingers compared to modern apes. They lack the long, strong fingers used by chimps and gorillas for knucklewalking, and the elongation of the hand found in the highly arboreal gibbons and orang-utans. However the phalange (finger) bones which are visible from the side are curved like those of the Australopithecus afarensis skeleton Lucy, indicating they were probably used in climbing.

"Additionally, [Ronald] Clarke considers that the feet of Stw 573 are a very good match for the 3.7 million year old footprint trails discovered at Laetoli by Mary Leakey’s team."

In now seems clear that there have been several examples of overlapping fossil species in Africa; the news on "Little Foot" is more confirmation. In Patrick Huyghe’s and my field guide, we wrote:

"In 1975, a nearly complete skull of an ancient early human, since named Homo ergaster, was unearthed from the same two million year old sediment at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, that six years earlier had revealed a nearly complete skull of the tall, robust, crested apeman Paranthropus boisei. These and later findings, including some from South Africa, suggests that less than two million years ago, there were actually six species of hominids coexisting in southern and eastern Africa; three were different species of the large and robust apemen Paranthropus, and three were species of early humans, Homo (habilis, rudolfensis, andergaster)."