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March 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 29/03/2010 11:53 AM Page 26 26 A Gorilla on Mars! First the Face on Mars and Now - a Gorilla !?! Where Have All The Werewolves Gone? Written by Nancy Atkinson Continued from Page 25 While evolution theory does not prove a priori that Bigfoot exists — the majority of palæoanthropologists and primatologists discount the possibility – it does give tacit approval to the possibility that it could exist. All the academics who supported the existence of the Yeti, and later Sasquatch, beginning in the 1950s, specialised in these fields. Their approval was based less on any physical evidence, of which none acceptable to mainstream science existed, than on an evolutionary theoret ical model. With Bigfoot Classify this one under the same and its kindred the story comes full circle. nonsense as the "Bigfoot on Mars" the wooden Science helped disprove the existence of plank on Mars, or perhaps even the "Face on monsters such as mermaids, hippogriffs and Mars." Just an optical illusions, folks from a werewolves, but simultaneously allowed for the very, very zoomed in image from the Mars appearance of monsters like Bigfoot. rovers. The Sun newspaper seemingly started Admittedly, this thesis about the demise this foolishness on what must have been a slow of the werewolf has its flaws. Darwin and news day. evolution did not banish belief in werewolves The original image has been around completely. There are still places in the world awhile. It was taken by the Opportunity rover that harbour werewolf and were-predator back on sol 87 in 2004. Can you see any beliefs. Even in the US, sightings of the ‘Beast gorillas? I'm sure if you look really close and of Bray Road’ in Wisconsin have continued to zoom in and distort any of the rocks you can see be reported since the 1990s, with local people whatever you fancy. claiming that the creature behaves like a Let’s see! Face on Mars.... Bigfoot on werewolf. On the other hand, not all believers in Mars... Plank on Mars.... Pyramid on Mars.... Bigfoot take evolutionary models into account: and now Gorilla on Mars! The so called, “Gorilla” is just another a surprising number of Sasquatch enthusiasts in However, there have never been reports example of those who want to believe will North America self-identify as creationists. of Aliens on Mars. [] believe anything at any time in order to fulfill What is certain, though, is that when it their fantasy. comes to creatures of supposed biological Canadian Researcher reality, the werewolf has been replaced by Bigfoot and his ilk, and that Darwinian Snaps Sasquatch in evolutionary theory helped make the change Vancouver possible. Notes A Canadian researcher managed to take a picture of the face of the legendary hairy giant 1 Nicole Jacques-Lefèvre: “Such an Impure, – the mascot of the Winter Olympic Games Cruel and Savage Beast”, in Katheryn A 2010. Edwards, ed: Werewolves, Witches and Randy Brisson, a well-known Canadian Wandering Spirits: Traditional Belief and cryptozoologist, shared hot information with his Folklore in Early Modern Europe, Trueman Russian colleagues. The researcher sent a State University Press, Kirksville, 2002; and photograph of the North American Bigfoot to Brian J Frost: The Essential Guide to Werewolf Igor Burtsev and Dmitry Bayanov, the directors Literature, University of Wisconsin Press, of the International Center for Hominology. The Madison, 2003. Canadian took the picture of the creature in 2 For an excellent study of sea-serpents in Vancouver, the capital of Winter Games 2010. discuss ions of evolution see H Brink-Roby: Brisson assured his Russian colleagues “Siren canora: the mermaid and the mythical in that it was a photo of the legendary Bigfoot, or late nineteenth-century science”, Archive of Sasquatch. The popularity of the mythical Photo of the alleged “Bigfoot” from a Natural History 35, April 2008, pp1–14. creature has won it the honor to become a Russian Tabloid News Service 3 Francis T Buckland: Curiosities of Natural symbol and a mascot of Winter Olympics in The toes on the feet of both the adult and History, Macmillan & Co., 1865, p134. Vancouver. Mr. Brisson’s photo may mean that the youngster were pathologically angled to one 4 Charles Darwin to GR Waterhouse, 3 or 17 the mascots ramble somewhere in the woods of side. The researcher claimed that the creatures Dec 1843. Darwin Online, correspondence. the Olympic city. were breeding since he had found the footprints 5 SH Gage: “Zoology as a Factor in Mental The Canadian cryptozoologist said that of both a parent and a baby. Culture,” Science 4, 1896, p209. he had seen a Sasquatch peeking out from Mr. Brisson also said in his message to behind a huge stub in the woods near Pitt Lake. the Russian researchers that he and his son The spot, where the creature was supposedly decided not to trace the couple because the photographed, is quite far from sports objects. creatures, when trying to escape, were throwing Randy and his son Ray found big tracks rocks at them. on the snow along a hauling road. The footprints The story may sound very strange, but were quite big – it was obvious that they had Burtsev and Bayanov said that they had never been left by an adult creature. There were exposed the Canadian of any falsifications in smaller footprints found nearby too. their studies of the unknown. []