New Book On 1929 Ameranthropoid Hoax
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 22nd, 2008
French cryptozoologist Michel Raynal passes along word on a new book of some interest to hominologists and others about a fake produced during a time reflective of today. It details the investigation involving the so-called Ameranthropoides loysi.
I posted earlier about the curious link between this year (2008) of so many hoaxes, and the strange similar nature of the events of 1929. The media hype in 1929 about the Ameranthropoid is comparative to that of the Georgia body from this summer.
The manuscript by Bernardo Urbani and Ángel L. Viloria (LibrosEnRed, 2008) can be found online here.
Here are the details on the volume:
Ameranthropoides loysi Montandon 1929: The History of a Primatological Fraud reviews the information published on the controversy of the discovery of an alleged Neotropical anthropoid ape, that resulted in one of the most notorious scientific frauds of the 20th Century. Such finding supposedly occurred either in 1917 or 1918 while oil prospecting in the forests of the Tarra River region, located in the southwestern part of Lake Maracaibo, Zulia state, Venezuela. This case was as much discussed as it was unresolved. Detailed analysis of the archival sources suggested that the naming of such a primate was a fraud orchestrated by the Swiss physician George Montandon and de Loys himself, resulting in one of the most notorious scientific frauds of the 20th Century. This investigation provides previously unpublished information about this case whose development seems to be resolved in Venezuela, through the account of a third witness, the Venezuelan physician Enrique Tejera.
Black Friday, 1929.
The media hype in 1929 about the Ameranthropoid is comparative to that of the Georgia Bigfoot body hoax from this summer (both occurring right before Stock Market crashes).
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
