Questions about the Yowie ecological niche and timeline.

[Boab Bob]

I'm just amazed at the yowie niche. They must travel far + human-like longevity or is it the mating communication via woodknocking helping out.
HOW? How could it survive the arid period 15-12,000 years ago or were it's numbers higher before and the time of the aborigine tales of fighting groups of them is before the arid time? Did they fight they because of the reduced water and green areas?
Were they at all brought to Sahul or after the dry period? Were they brought at the same time as the Boab trees (if those were brought to Australia)?
Do they predate any human in Australia including alleged/possibly contoversial water collectors re: rock hollowing 120k BP in south-western W.A? Does their exact niche being crepscular keep them at a regular but low population level?
How can they be gigantopithecus if they are like the EARLY hominids? Convergent evolution or are they meganthropus etc?

I think crossing the Wallace Line surely gradually over a long period means they have been in Australia/Sahul for a few million years possibly limited to 1 or 2 million by the ponginae ancestors timeline.

[Boab Bob]

There are many convincing reports describing it as both ape-like pulling through the trees and bounding about etc and reports having them more human-like and strolling about. Two different species then? But how can that be if the population numbers are relatively low? Legacy populations from a more populated time?

[aaq]

Some interesting questions... Assuming Yowie = roughly Sasquatch, apparently we can rule out Gigantopithecus as there is an Orang Utan connection with G.

Sasquatch Genome Project points to largely human DNA, suggesting hybridisation with another unidentified species... but apparently absolutely zero Oran Utan DNA.

If we consider that the hairies have a potentially large chunk of human DNA, we could probably rule out chimoanze/gorilla/oran utan/etc but they have probably split off from humans, rather than being a different species. So they may have come about more recently (10-20k years BP?) but who knows where they first came about.

I believe the Sahul shelf was exposed about 18000yrs ago, but for how long? Was the end of land access the start of the arid period - arid/dry or hot, hot potentially causing sea levels to rise.

Ideas around Sahul are interesting, and if you run with the "mostly human/hybrid" hypothesis some things possibly line up.

PS - I'm not sure if I read the sasquatch/Gigantopithecus/oran utan link on the SGP page or on Dr Melba Ketchum's Facebook page?

[Boab Bob]

Some interesting questions... Assuming Yowie = roughly Sasquatch, apparently we can rule out Gigantopithecus as there is an Orang Utan connection with G.

Sasquatch Genome Project points to largely human DNA, suggesting hybridisation with another unidentified species... but apparently absolutely zero Oran Utan DNA.

If we consider that the hairies have a potentially large chunk of human DNA, we could probably rule out chimoanze/gorilla/oran utan/etc but they have probably split off from humans, rather than being a different species. So they may have come about more recently (10-20k years BP?) but who knows where they first came about.

I believe the Sahul shelf was exposed about 18000yrs ago, but for how long? Was the end of land access the start of the arid period - arid/dry or hot, hot potentially causing sea levels to rise.

Ideas around Sahul are interesting, and if you run with the "mostly human/hybrid" hypothesis some things possibly line up.

PS - I'm not sure if I read the sasquatch/Gigantopithecus/oran utan link on the SGP page or on Dr Melba Ketchum's Facebook page?

Sorry but the Ketchum thing isn't regarded as serious or scientific. Let's keep this thread it on the topic of the yowie rather than US sasquatch industry and fraudsters.

[Wolf]

For starters saying they split off from us is akin to saying apes were our ancestors IMO... They perhaps are closer in morphology to our common ancestors than modern humans are.
The tree is complex and very much alive with many thriving branches.
The speculative 'evidence' indicates the dna of a much vaster than understood runs in all living hominids with crossbreeding not only producing viable offspring but leading to us all.

We are all a mix of our ancestors, and the variety of said ancestors is regularly increased.

[aaq]

Yes... My very poorly made point was that there seems to be more evidence (no matter where you look - I subscribe to papers from Academia) of interbreeding with our ancestors, and it's not totally out of the blue to consider hairies in that mix.

The reason that's on topic, in my opinion, is that on whichever continent you look that is a fairly credible scenario - that is, the hairies have been a result of earlier humans interbreeding and perhaps being exiled and further evolving. This speculative model could be applied to the US, Asia or here - here specifically it could include distant ancestors, indigenous Australians, PNG, Indo, etc, evolving in the bush.

I appreciate and respect that Gigantopithecus could be who they are, and the miniscule fossil record (jawbone/tooth?) leaves a lot of creative license for all the published studies. It also suggests that they would then migrate in parallel over the same land bridges, etc. I guess equally feasible.

[Bÿrn Jaoél]

I'm just amazed at the yowie niche. They must travel far + human-like longevity or is it the mating communication via woodknocking helping out.
HOW? How could it survive the arid period 15-12,000 years ago or were it's numbers higher before and the time of the aborigine tales of fighting groups of them is before the arid time? Did they fight they because of the reduced water and green areas?
Were they at all brought to Sahul or after the dry period? Were they brought at the same time as the Boab trees (if those were brought to Australia)?
Do they predate any human in Australia including alleged/possibly contoversial water collectors re: rock hollowing 120k BP in south-western W.A? Does their exact niche being crepscular keep them at a regular but low population level?
How can they be gigantopithecus if they are like the EARLY hominids? Convergent evolution or are they meganthropus etc?

I think crossing the Wallace Line surely gradually over a long period means they have been in Australia/Sahul for a few million years possibly limited to 1 or 2 million by the ponginae ancestors timeline.

You might enjoy this video, which asks the question...
"is it scientifically plausible that a non-sapiens hominid species may have reached the Australian mainland before anatomically modern humans?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmWnUMofpPU&t=2449s