A proposal for research: Hominid archaeology in Idaho's Salmon National Forest mountain limestone caves

I. Introduction

The phenomenon of repeated reports of "wild men" and "hairy monsters" throughout the history of the world is well-known in native and folk lore (Forth, 2007) and has been elaborated upon by a plethora of relatively recent sightings, tracks, and other "physical" evidence depicting a large, bipedal hominoid or ape roaming arboreal forests in the mountainous regions of the United States and Canada (Leggett, 2009).

Krantz proposed that these reports were correlated to a long-thought extinct ancient species of Asian primate, Gigantopithecus blacki (Krantz G. , 1999) while Meldrum has assigned taxonomy to footprints (Anthropoidipes ameriborealis) made by the subject of the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film footage of a purported sasquatch exiting a creek bed adjacent to Willow Creek, CA (Meldrum, Ichnotaxonomy of giant hominoid tracks in North America, 2007).

The legend of the European "Wildman" has extensive literary and artistic presence throughout the continent of Europe since the late Middle Ages, yet is widely considered to be fiction (Forth, 2007). While legends were pervasive in Asia and the Pacific describing hair-covered, bipedal primate-like subjects with accounts from villagers in Tibet ("Yeti") to aborigines in Australia ("Yowie") as well as Malaysian legends ("Orang Pendak") European "wild men" stories differ from those accounts in the variety of manifestations of physical appearance, behavior, and supernatural qualities (Forth, 2007). In contrast, recent North American bigfoot stories are consistent accounts of large, hirsute figures sometimes accompanied by apparently younger individuals, with most subjects exhibiting shy and reclusive characteristics, much like behavior initially reported by G. g. gorilla or "lowland gorillas" upon that species' discovery in 1847 (Meldrum, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, 2006).

It is possible that this fictional iconic status of wild man folklore in Europe became an episode of cultural transference in North America as colonies were settled in the 17th and 18th centuries, attributing early American accounts of bigfoot or sasquatch to similar European lore, and quite possibly incorrect categorization (Forth, 2007). It is also possible that the present intense skepticism towards the existence of sasquatch or bigfoot by formal academia has roots in this historical context (Meldrum, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, 2006). However a paucity of hard, scientific evidence supporting the existence of a second bipedal hominoid on this continent does not help the effort of legitimate study of the phenomenon (Murad, 1988). Nonetheless, the scale of the phenomenon across cultural and geographic boundaries warrants the inclusion of the subject matter in a conscientious, academic, and scholarly pursuit, and is entirely relevant to the search for scientific knowledge (Bartholomew & Bartholomew, 1991).

II. Rationale

Interestingly, the evidence of multiple-species hominid cohabitation is clear as recently as 15 kyr (thousand years) ago in a region in the eastern Mediterranean known as the Levant where Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis have been confirmed via stable isotope analysis to have shared some cultural aspects (McBrearty, 1990). In addition, the two species habituated and hunted an open range savannah replete with large game mammals (Shea, 2001). Archaeological evidence for multiple-species cohabitation is plentiful in examples from Flores, an island in Indonesia, and France where the first Homo neanderthalensis (Bayanov & Bourtsev, 1976). fossils were discovered as well as many locations in Eastern Europe

In Flores, part of the Indonesian island arc, an entirely new hominin species was discovered in 2004. Homo floresiensis was initially theorized to have originated from a Homo erectus population that had come to the island before 840 kyr ago, but more recent study suggests ancestry from Australopithicene (Baab & McNulty, 2008). The new species was persistent until at least 10 kyr ago (Morwood, et al., 2004). The physical characteristics of the new species were interesting. While brain size and limb metrics were primitive in comparison to modern man, Homo floresiensis was bipedal and the first individual specimen measured approximately 100 cm tall when upright (Blaszczyk & Vaughan, 2007). In addition to these surprising details, "LB1" (as the first subject was known, named for the limestone cave "Liang Bua" or "cold cave" where she was discovered) was found in similar geologic stratigraphic layers as fossilized remains from a pygmoid stegodon (elephant) unique to the island, and various stone tool artifacts and charcoal consistent with Homo erectus technology. There is still a great deal of controversy surrounding the validity of this discovery. Many believe that the group of individuals found in Liang Bua were pathologically microcephalic Homo sapiens precursors to existing populations of pygmies on the island (Jacob, et al., 2006) but a growing majority of scholars consider the discovery an entirely new species (Baab & McNulty, 2008). In the higher sediments of the Liang Bua cave, evidence of pathologically normal non-pygmoid Homo sapiens was found, as the caves were close to existing modern villages and traditionally considered a refuge from the intense tropical heat. (Morwood, et al., 2004) It has been widely known via other excavation sites on Flores that Homo sapiens has been persistent on the island since at least 50 kyr ago (Jacob, et al., 2006). While this establishes a potential for overlap of species, little is known regarding cultural exchange between the two on Flores, if any. This presentation of relatively recent co-mingling of hominid species in a compressed ecological setting sets the stage for further questions into the phenomenon of multiple bipedal hominoid radiation into other parts of the world as a facet of the hominid Diaspora from Africa theory.

While this paper does not focus primarily on the Flores discovery, the importance of Homo floresiensis to the overall picture of hominid radiation should not be underestimated. The unusual morphology of the specimens, namely the small intracranial size, has all but nullified legacy theories of brain evolution for primates (Baab & McNulty, 2008). It has also opened up the human evolutionary tree to many branches that were never considered before (Argue, Morwood, Sutikna, Jatmiko, & Saptomo, 2009) and the variety of hominid species that have shared the planet with Homo sapiens. In light of this new understanding of the limitations of the past hominid evolutionary models, further questions erupt into the potential for North American hominid appearance in history, and evidence yet to be discovered to support these concepts.

IV. Discussion

Since evidence of overlap between multiple hominid species in Eurasia and Africa is plentiful via the archaeological record (Richards, Pettitt, Trinkaus, Smith, Paunovic, & Karavanic, 2000) it is appropriate that every effort is undertaken to establish a similar record for North America. This is particularly compelling considering the theories regarding the existence of the Bering land bridge prior to, during, and just after the late Holocene glaciations about 15 kyr ago, and hominid radiation behavior patterns during the Quaternary period.

Many limestone caves exist in the mountainous regions of the western United States (Frost, Raines, Almquist, & Johnson, 1996) but rarely are human remains from earlier than 9 kyr ago found in North America (Green, et al., 1998). In fact, archaeological research takes a back seat to development and exploitation of natural resources in the Northwest, since a relatively large percentage of the land is publicly held wilderness (Leonhardy, 1988). However there are potential locations in the Salmon National Forest adjacent to Challis, ID that present favorable geomorphology for exploration, providing that governmental restrictions or private interests do not obstruct the process.

Can targeted excavations of existing limestone caves in remote western regions of North America reveal archaic hominid radiation other than Homo sapiens into that continent, and possibly inter-species cohabitation that has been previously undiscovered? The question presents many problems to surmount such as remote location access, general lack of species habitation data, and the tendency of modern academia to push this type of study into the fringes of science.

On the other hand, the potentially incorrect scientific notion of Homo sapiens as the sole remaining bipedal primate has historically been biased by western religious cultural implications of humankind's superiority as a species on Earth (Bayanov & Bourtsev, 1976). The appearance of a new hominid species in North America has the potential to shake the foundations of anthropology's status quo, and may present a new paradigm in primate research the world over.

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