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One might take some comfort in the fact that the “actual” bones—the real hard evidence—are still present in a museum in Ethiopia. Of course, it is not so easy to obtain direct access to rare fossil specimens. But say you did have the proper scientific credentials and were able to go to Ethiopia and inspect the actual bones of Lucy. How would you know for certain that those were the bones picked up years ago by Johanson? You might compare them with the photographs and descriptions in the published reports. But here we go again—everything depends upon how much faith one places in the reports.

In some cases, the bones themselves are not available for inspection. For example, during World War II almost the whole collection of Beijing man (Homo erectus) fossils was lost during the Japanese occupation of China. The Beijing man fossils now exist only in the form of old written reports, photographs, and casts. And no one doubts that the originals did in fact exist.

But what about reports by scientists who claim they saw and examined dead specimens of wildmen, the corpses of which were not preserved? Most scientists will grant no credibility at all to such reports.

Here and in the case of Beijing man, the actual physical evidence is no longer available for inspection. Yet in one case the reports are believed, and in the other they are not. Why? We propose that reports about evidence conforming to the standard view of human evolution generally receive greater credibility than reports about nonconforming evidence. Thus deeply held beliefs, rather than purely objective standards, may become the determining factor in the acceptance and rejection of reports about controversial evidence.

10.2 Cryptozoology

For some researchers, the study of creatures such as wildmen comes under the heading of a genuine branch of science called cryptozoology. Cryptozoology, a term coined by the French zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans, refers to the scientific investigation of species whose existence has been reported but not fully documented. The Greek word kryptos means “hidden,” so cryptozoology literally means “the study of hidden animals.” There exists an International Society of Cryptozoology, the board of directors of which includes professional biologists, zoologists, and paleontologists from universities and museums around the world. The purpose of the society, as stated in its journal Cryptozoology, is “the investigation, analysis, publication, and discussion of all matters related to animals of unexpected form or size, or unexpected occurrence in time or space.” A typical issue of Cryptozoology usually contains one or more articles by scientists on the topic of wildmen.

Is it really possible that there could be an unknown species of hominid on this planet? Many will find this hard to believe for two reasons. They suppose that every inch of the earth has been quite thoroughly explored. And they also suppose that scientists possess a complete inventory of the earth’s living animal species. Both suppositions are incorrect.

First, even in countries such as the United States, there remain vast unpopulated and little-traveled areas. In particular, the northwestern United States still has large regions of densely forested, mountainous terrain which, although mapped from the air, are rarely penetrated by humans on the ground.

Second, a surprising number of new species of animals are still being found each year—about 5,000 according to a conservative estimate (Heuvelmans 1983, pp. 19–20). As might be suspected, the great majority of these, some 4,000, are insects. Yet Heuvelmans (1983, p. 21) noted: “Quite recently, in the mid 1970’s, there were discovered each year, around 112 new species of fish, 18 new species of reptiles, about ten new species of amphibians, the same number of mammals, and 3 or 4 new species of birds.”

Most of the mammals were small, and this might lead one to doubt that a large mammal, such as a wildman, might someday enter the list of living species. But