Ever since Dogman was first reported, lots of variations have been described. The problem becomes one of chicken or the egg dilemma. Because people reported seeing a bipedal creature with what appeared to be a snout and a hair-covered body, werewolf/dog became the comparison. We did much the same when Sasquatch showed up in popular talk in the 1950s and because he was upright and hair covered, he was compared to a gorilla. Soon, people commonly accepted Sasquatch as a gorilla and Dogman as a dog variation. Therefore, much research has been on the assumption of a canine and its habits and tendencies, much like people thinking Sasquatch would think and act as an ape.
There are often witness embellishments including more dog-like features, like pointed ears and a tail and it's difficult to determine if this is people equating what they were seeing with a dog-man and assuming features other than the obvious snout and hair.
We don't get far in cryptid research when we classify something and then make assumptions. There can be no assumptions about Dogman's origins. We must treat it as a set of circumstances, locations, encounters, and physical features that give rise to a possible explanation.
I think we can all agree that the notion of a dog-human mating is an enormous jump from what we could consider "Occam's Razor" or the concept that the most simple explanation is probably the accurate one.
So, before we jump to alien hybridization and otherworldly beings, I'd like to try some real-world explanations for these "features."
Let's begin with a potential lineage for Dogman - what are his origins? What creatures have been in America for millions of years and which ones might have survived long enough to evolve in seclusion? What kind of creatures have a tendency to be shy and forest or arboreal-focused.
Above: This chart demonstrates the two branches of primates that split off, one below giving way to tarsiers, new world and old world monkeys, apes and humans, and the one above giving way to lemurs and lorises. Notice the one fellow who is on the upper branch that leads to lemurs and lorises? They recently found him and they are continuing to find others who fit into the limbs closer to the millions of years ago mark. All of these primates emerged from that one common ancestor on the left, but supposedly only the ape line managed to create upright intelligent beings. The lorises and lemurs, though originating from the same progenitor, did not manage to create an upright or intelligent being, hmm?
We know what happened on the ape branch - humans, but what happened on the other main branch, was their outcome the simple lemur for the same millions of years?
(referred to as "wet nose" of evolutionary primates)
(referred to as "wet nose" of evolutionary primates)
What if these "wet nosed" creatures did, in fact, have the same occurrence on their end of the primate tree? What features might that upright being have? Timidity? Shy tree-loving? A snout? Nightvision?
The Americas had lemurs and sloths, even giant sloths, up until 30,000 years ago, and the lemurs were believed to have died out. What if they had a branch on their section of the tree that produced an upright being? This would need a fair amount of intelligence to survive up against large creatures. They would have to work on skills of arboreal (tree) living as well as out thinking the predators to become exceedingly reclusive.
There are carnivorous lemurs. There is no reason to think they might be as close as a chimp and a human, with the human growing smarter, upright, and taller. The lemur could very well have had a cousin that grew taller, upright, and smarter.
Source: Most eosimiidae species are documented by unique or fragmentary specimens. This, as well as the strong belief that simians originated in Africa has made it difficult for many to accept the idea that Asia played a role in early primate evolution. Although some continue to challenge the anthropoid resemblances found in Eosiimidae, extensive anatomical evidence collected over the past decade substantiates its anthropoid status.
Wikipedia: Dating has proven this genus lived from 40 to 45 million years ago in the middle Eocene. The genus Eosimiasis unique because of the presence of primitive and derived traits. It provides new insight into the phylogenetic relationships.
Truth: Our knowledge has holes in it -
The original continent that made up the land mass of the world, referred to as Pangaea, broke up apparently 100,000,000 years ago. What early common ancestors did it contain? Well, before it broke off, it must have carried lemurs and New World monkeys to the American continents. I'm a little confused here, how did lemurs and New World monkeys make it to America if the continents broke off 100 million years ago and yet "Archiecebus achilles" (below) is the oldest primate found, meaning it was older than lemurs and this was 55,000 years ago and "Ida" (below) was the oldest common ancestor between lemur and human 45,000,000 years ago. Sometimes, explanations get a bit wishy washy in the world of archaeology about whether primates evolved in Asia while evolving in Africa, and yet we know of Peking Man and Java Man.
(Above: Oldest primate found in China - Archicebus achilles that lived in what is now central China during Eocene about 55 million years ago.)
SOURCE: The find, described in the journal Nature, is the oldest known fossil primate skeleton. “This is the oldest primate skeleton of this quality and completeness ever discovered and one of the most primitive primate fossils ever documented. The origin of primates sets the first milestone for all primate lineages, including that of humanity,” explained co-author Dr Dan Gebo, an anthropologist with the Northern Illinois University.
"IDA" - Germany 45,000,000 oldest branch between lemur and human discovered and called Darwinius masillae. She is 45 million years old and considered one of the most extraordinary finds in the early primate family.
If lemurs branch is a possibility let's have a look at how a lemur (non-evolved into upright) stands -
Do we now have that sort of digitigrade stance of a dog if you stand him up on his haunches. Their feet were not designed for walking on upright like our plantigrade ones. Many report this haunched-look to the legs of dogman.
Evolution is, of course, applied to all life forms, so it is relevant to the Dogman. No matter how romantic it is, he did not just drop from the sky. But, there is more to the possible origins of his "evolutionary" process.
Let's look at another real possibility:
From the book The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee by John Haywood (starting page 200 on reprint edition from Amazon): Referred to as "pygmies," these skeletons were found buried in crypts just outside of Sparta, Tennessee in the County of White and reported in the Nashville Whig in June 1820.These graves had many bodies, all of them quite small. Some of the crypts were as small as 18 inches by 12 inches. The first grave was 2 feet long and inside the small skeleton and its teeth had the researcher wondering if it was canine or monkey. He had them sent off to be examined. They were buried with care in a stone crypt and had shells and urns with them. The bones were so old they crumbled quite easily. One skull the examiner held up was 5" across from side to side. Most individuals were from 18 inches to 2 feet 10 inches long. One find was a 5 foot 5 inch individual found with the smaller ones. The taller skeleton had a head that was longer, eyes much wider asunder, the forehead much higher above the eyebrows, and the under jaw measured one inch longer on each side than the smaller fellows.Atop the head of one skull had bright silver grey fine hairs.There was great dissimilarity in skull shapes, the size and shape of the bones, and looked to belong to different tribes of people. Just 8 miles away, a 7-foot giant was found.
Let's look at another very real world possibility -
Did you know that in the primate world, if you hybridize two baboons that are in different "types," you can get some interesting features? Their snouts get boxier, they get extra teeth, and bigger faces. It wouldn't take much to imagine a Sasquatch and another Sasquatch of separate "types." Reportedly within the Sasquatch family, there are ones with bigger foreface, some that look quite human, some that look like apes, and many variations. These could all be different "breeds" of their kind or "races" as we would put it. When you hybridize, some features are more pronounced.
(above - Baboon types hybridizing)
In the case of lemurs, they are only found on Madagascar, but they were all over the globe at one time, believing to have died off eventually and thriving on the island because of isolation. What if their common ancestor was on the Americas when they broke off into their own continent? What would the variety have been here? And if they mated between two distinct breeds, what sort of "robust" characteristics might they have created?
Best candidates in America for dogman evolution
We would need to open our minds up about the origins of Dogman in America. We have two avenues to explore - either an evolutionary descent of New World monkey family or another intriguing possibility I will discuss in a while.
First potential candidate -
Megatherium Americanum (giant sloth of Americas)
Source: Paleontologists in Uruguay published findings in November suggesting that humans hunted giant sloths there about 30,000 years ago. This is an interesting concept because it supposes that humans were in the Americas 30,000 years ago. Oh, I think it was longer than that. Man aside, let's look at the giant sloth. We know they have some characteristics described in dogman and were here up until 30,000 years ago, but unless their fossils are vastly different than earlier giant sloths, that is not enough time for an evolutionary change to what people describe as Dogman. Let's look for a critter who might have become upright who was here much longer ago -
In the drawing above is tarsius eocaenus (dog in that name).
Tarsiiformes - tarsiers are a group of primates that once ranged from Europe to Asia, Africa to America, but today are only found on the islands of Southeast Asia. This is intriguing when you consider forms of them that might have evolved over time on those isolated islands where eventually many thousands of years ago, ancient giants (or as I call them Originators) came to spread out over those islands as they conquered the earth long before homo sapiens. It is a possibility that these evolved upright beings were taken upon their ships and brought with them to the new world as a novelty or even as a slave labor for their lesser intelligence.
New World Monkeys -
This New World Monkey was found in Argentina estimated to be from about 23 million years ago. More than enough time to evolve into another form of man. We know that in China, other forms of man were developing, like Java Man and Peking Man and that was outside of Africa. These new world monkeys many millions of years ago could have shared a common ancestor when they developed in the Americas, one that lead the path to an upright intelligent being, perhaps even a form of man we eventually called the elongated skull people of Paracas and also perhaps having taken a whole different variation. The skull shows the potential for an eventual long-faced upright being.
This fellow might be the BINGO in the group -
This fellow might be the BINGO in the group -
Now, here's a real candidate - the Bear-Dog. Amphicyonidae were large terrestrial carnivores in North America, Africa, Europe and Asia from 46.2 million years ago to 1.8 million years ago, existing for an amazing 44.4 million years! It doesn't take much imagination to consider 1.8 million years of evolving into a form we might know and see today as Dogman. In that period of time. Just look at this fellow who was us 1.8 million years ago, referred to as Skull 5.
The interesting thing about the Bear-Dog is that they had proportions like a dog, but a build like a bear. Many report a bear-like snout on the dogman. They were also thought to be plantigrade instead of digitigrade like dogs are now. This means their feet landed on the ground flatly like a bear (plantigrade) instead of a dog (digitigrade), and we know how bears can stand. Even paleontologists have a hard time classifying these fellows. They were thought to weight less than 100 kg which would be below 220 pounds. However, considering the size of man this many millions of years ago and the ones walking around today, the evolutionary process had us standing erect and growing in height. If such a process occurred to the Bear-Dog, we would have an excellent candidate for Dogman.
This gives rise to the concept that from man there were Peking Man, Java Man, Aryans, Giants, homo floresiensis (found in 2003!), Homo sapiens and others not yet identified, and from early lineages of other species, there could have been evolutionary offshoots and beings here that we have not accounted for yet.
How about the oldest primate found in the Americas? The Branisella was found in Bolivia and dates back to about 26 million years. This is rather interesting, isn't it? If this major continent broke apart 100 million years ago, then these guys arrived 26 million years ago from where? Yes, more of those gaps in knowledge. Interestingly, the Bransiella is hard to relate back to other Old World monkeys, according to experts. Now, you put him on a continent separated and imagine what his evolutionary process might undergo. It would be something quite "other" than what occurred in Africa and other continents with primates.
An evolutionary offshoot of the "wet nose" primates? Hybridization between Sasquatch?
Evolved process of the Bear-Dog?
The possibilities are endless when you consider the process of evolution and the candidates that might be progenitor to such an oddity. The key here is to walk away from the canine classification and open the door for real origins of this elusive being.
As always, I encourage your own voyage into research. Here are some links to check out:
Dawn of humans in America
Primate brain evolution
Oldest New World Monkey