Nine hours into his 1927 historic first solo Atlantic flight, Charles Lindbergh began to see odd see- through creatures climbing all over his craft. "Ghostly presences"...
"I saw them plain as day-transparent forms that moved freely about.."
These creatures talked to Lindbergh, advising him on how to best succeed in his attempt to reach Paris. They also gave Lindbergh advise on spiritual matters.
After safely landing, Charles Lindbergh never told anyone about his experience with these "gremlins" during his epic flight-he would not tell anyone until he published his second autobiography in 1953- "The Spirit of Saint Louis." In this book, he described how these entities were menacing in appearance, yet beneficial in behaviour; these "spirits" saved his life.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Gigantopithecus Blacki
For centuries the Chinese have stocked their apothecaries with unusual ingredients, seeking to halt the decline in their customers libido. In 1935, while inside one such shop looking for curios, the German paleo-anthropologist Ralph von Koenigswald discovered a large fossil molar of an unknown species-the pharmacist said these were "Dragons bones", or teeth. Four years later Koenigswald found three more of the same teeth, and was able to determine that they belonged to an extinct ape. He named the genus Gigantopithecus, and the species became "Blacki", in honor of his deceased friend, Davidson Black.
During World War Two, Koenigswald became a prisoner of the Japanese on the island of Java. He hid the four teeth in a milk jar buried in a friends yard- these were the only samples known to science at the time.
Koenigswald and a colleague of his- Weidenreich-had been excavating early hominid remains-Peking man, and Java man. Weidenreich, operating from the wartime safety of New York, and examining the plaster casts of the four teeth, thought that the Giganto teeth bore simularities to hominid teeth, and concluded that Giganto was more human-like than apish. The ideas in his 1946 book- "Apes, Giants, and Man", became the generally accepted view- Giganto was a form of early human.
After the war, China was closed to most Westerners. The task fell upon the Chinese to continue the search for "Blacki's" fossil remains- in the mid 1950's, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology sent two teams into the Chinese countryside... a thousand teeth and three jaw bones were discovered.
Analysis of the jaw shows that Gigantopithecus was more ape than Man, standing between 9 and 10 feet tall, and weighed about 1,000-1,200 pounds (using a standard 1:6.5 ratio often used for research in apes and early hominids) This enormous ape probably was a vegetarian (eating bamboo, primarily)...walking mostly on all fours, upon its knuckles or fists; yet could stand for extended periods of time ( this is really impossible to tell, since we only have the jawbones and teeth to go by). The fossils found in Liuzhou China and in Vietnam date to the middle Pleistocene, about 400,000 BC. but an older similar ape lived in northern India about five million years ago. Fossils dating as recently as 100,000 years ago have been found-these samples show that the ape was not evolving downward in size at this time.
The females seem to have been much smaller-almost half as big as the males (sexual dimorphism, due to gestation/diet concerns).
It has been speculated that this ape never became extinct, and crossed the Siberian-Bering strait land bridge and travelled down into the America's during the last Ice age. This ape is alleged by some to be the source for present day Yeti sightings in the Himalaya's and sasquatch sightings in north America.
The size of this ape, and the necessary numbers needed for successful breeding, seem to preclude the possibility of the survival of this creature down to the modern age, as we would surely be able to detect the destructive ecological evidence of its existence. It is unlikely that a ten foot, 1,000 pound ape could evolve into a quasi -human, erect, seven-to-eight-footer within the span of 100,000-375,000 years or so (?). To discover the truth about Sasquatch-like entities, we probably need to look beyond Giganto.
"Bigfoot" sightings are not demographic-certain types of people do not report encounters. Rather, sightings are geographic- they are seen when people go into certain areas.
During World War Two, Koenigswald became a prisoner of the Japanese on the island of Java. He hid the four teeth in a milk jar buried in a friends yard- these were the only samples known to science at the time.
Koenigswald and a colleague of his- Weidenreich-had been excavating early hominid remains-Peking man, and Java man. Weidenreich, operating from the wartime safety of New York, and examining the plaster casts of the four teeth, thought that the Giganto teeth bore simularities to hominid teeth, and concluded that Giganto was more human-like than apish. The ideas in his 1946 book- "Apes, Giants, and Man", became the generally accepted view- Giganto was a form of early human.
After the war, China was closed to most Westerners. The task fell upon the Chinese to continue the search for "Blacki's" fossil remains- in the mid 1950's, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology sent two teams into the Chinese countryside... a thousand teeth and three jaw bones were discovered.
Analysis of the jaw shows that Gigantopithecus was more ape than Man, standing between 9 and 10 feet tall, and weighed about 1,000-1,200 pounds (using a standard 1:6.5 ratio often used for research in apes and early hominids) This enormous ape probably was a vegetarian (eating bamboo, primarily)...walking mostly on all fours, upon its knuckles or fists; yet could stand for extended periods of time ( this is really impossible to tell, since we only have the jawbones and teeth to go by). The fossils found in Liuzhou China and in Vietnam date to the middle Pleistocene, about 400,000 BC. but an older similar ape lived in northern India about five million years ago. Fossils dating as recently as 100,000 years ago have been found-these samples show that the ape was not evolving downward in size at this time.
The females seem to have been much smaller-almost half as big as the males (sexual dimorphism, due to gestation/diet concerns).
It has been speculated that this ape never became extinct, and crossed the Siberian-Bering strait land bridge and travelled down into the America's during the last Ice age. This ape is alleged by some to be the source for present day Yeti sightings in the Himalaya's and sasquatch sightings in north America.
The size of this ape, and the necessary numbers needed for successful breeding, seem to preclude the possibility of the survival of this creature down to the modern age, as we would surely be able to detect the destructive ecological evidence of its existence. It is unlikely that a ten foot, 1,000 pound ape could evolve into a quasi -human, erect, seven-to-eight-footer within the span of 100,000-375,000 years or so (?). To discover the truth about Sasquatch-like entities, we probably need to look beyond Giganto.
"Bigfoot" sightings are not demographic-certain types of people do not report encounters. Rather, sightings are geographic- they are seen when people go into certain areas.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)