Monday, April 13, 2009

Karl Shuker's blog and the Wyoming mummy

Dr. Karl Shuker's blog is a must read for cryptozoology enthusiasts. In this entry, he looks at legends, reports, and artifacts relating to claims of very small people in North American prehistory - or, as he puts it, "Babyfeet" as opposed to "Bigfeet."

COMMENT: I greatly respect Shuker, but he's incorrect in reporting that the one unquestionably existing "mummy" of a tiny human - the 40-cm corpse displayed for many years in Casper, WY - is an adult. He seems to be relying on a claim by the late author Frank Edwards that the skull was of an adult human. Edwards claimed "scientists" had confirmed this, but did not cite any sources or even give a name. Dr. George Gill of the U. of Wyoming examined the specimen and identified it as a microcephalic infant. (Oddly, no one seems to know where this curiosity is now.)
See:
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Lagoon/1345/pedro.html

2 comments:

Dr Karl Shuker said...

Hi Matt, Thanks for your comments re my blog. Re the Wyoming mummy: the problems with the microcephalic identity identity are that firstly, the cranial bones are fused, and secondly, the mummy had a full set of adult teeth, both of which contradict the infant identity. Moreover, brain fragments were present on the ouside of the skull, consistent with it having been savagely attacked, but not with microcephaly.

Matt Bille said...

Karl,

Thanks. It's interesting that experts who actually saw it came to differing conclusions. It would make a good topic for a show like MonsterQuest to search for the specimen. There is no reason to think it's been destroyed. A reward and some detective work should have a chance of turning it up.
Thanks again for writing in.