Quote:
Originally Posted by
JLibourel 
I just saw in the paper today that an episode of "Finding Bigfoot" being aired tonight deals with the Orang Pendek of Sumatra. Of all the crypto man-beasts, this one might well be a real animal. As I recall (without googling the topic), an Englishwoman with scientific credentials claimed to have seen one and said it was definitely an ape. My Dutch grandmother had lived in Sumatra with her husband, who was an army officer and a keen outdoorsman, spoke as if the Orang Pendek were a very familiar animal. However, her English was even worse than my rudimentary Dutch, so communication between us was kind of garbled, and she was rather on the dingy side anyway.
Judging by the claims of its size, its likely its is more ape than human , or even a derivative of what we know as Sasquatch with a common ancestor.
I recall reading somewhere that species with small population bases can mutate remarkably fast. It's generally environmental changes so if the migration path of the species was thru Asia to Russia and across the bearing strait then it could explain a lot.
I also lean towards more ape DNA in the orang because of the footprints and the divergent toe you see. The yeti seems to share this but to a much lesser degree, but then the Sasquatch foot looks very human. I don't recall the yowie.
Interesting how this phenomena doesn't cross into s America. I've heard of the Mapinguari which by description seems to relate to a sloth more than hominid.
