RHI: Footprint Evidence of the Chinese Yeren Compared to Californian Bigfoot

Dr. Jeff Meldrum’s new journal The Relict Hominoid Inquiry is publishing thoughtful articles. The following abstract of this contribution positively compares the Yeren footprints to Bigfoot/Sasquatch foot tracks found at Bluff Creek, California.

1 Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, 921 S. 8th Ave, Pocatello, ID 83209; 2 Beijing Museum of Natural History, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT. The 1970’s saw a keen interest by the Chinese government in the “snowman question.” A state- sponsored expedition was mounted to central China (Hubei Province) to investigate the possible presence of a correspondingly large bipedal hominid, referred to as the yeren, or wild man. In 1977, a team lead by Professor Zhou Guoxing gathered eyewitness accounts, hair samples, and footprints, but no specimen of yeren was retrieved. In 2008 the authors met at the Beijing Museum of Natural and proceeded to Hubei’s Shennongjia National Nature Reserve to interview witnesses, including a park ranger, Yuan Yuhao, who claimed to have observed a yeren in the reserve, at a distance of approximately 500 m. The site was at an elevation of approximately 2100 m in a mosaic of forest and sedge meadows. The yeren covered in reddish brown hair, was sunning itself. When Yuan called out, it rose and walked away bipedally. Yuan cast a clear pair of its footprints, which measured approximately 38 cm in length, 16.5 cm across the forefoot, and 10 cm across the heel. The footprints indicated a plantigrade, pentadactyl foot lacking evidence of claws. The hallux was larger than the lateral toes and non-divergent. A midtarsal pressure ridge indicated a significant degree of flexibility in the midfoot. In all distinguishing characteristics the casts resembled the ichnotaxon Anthropoidipes ameriborealis MELDRUM 2007. This evidence suggests independent corroboration of the existence of an unrecognized bipedal primate species with a circum-Pacific distribution.

Loren Coleman 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.

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