Colombian Natives and their Transpacific origin (2025 paper)

Ijust came across a paper published nearly one year ago (February 2025) with a suggestive title: The Origin of Amerindians: A Case Study of Secluded Colombian Chimila, Wiwa, and Wayúu Ethnic Groups and Their Trans-Pacific Gene Flow by Arnaiz-Villena A, Lledo T, Silvera-Redondo C, Juarez I, Vaquero-Yuste C, Martin-Villa JM, Suarez-Trujillo F.. published in Genes. 2025; 16(3):286. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes16030286)

I have mentioned the Wayúu, in a post many years ago which dealt with Y-chromosome haplogroup C, and a probable transpacific origin of these natives! The 2025 paper looks at their HLA.

Arnaiz-Villena et al. wrote the following (I underlined the relevant text to highlight it):

"Results: The results obtained place the Chimila, Wayúu, and Wiwa populations phylogenetically close to the other North and South Amerindian populations included in this study. Amerindians are genetically separated from the rest of the world’s populations. Chimila, Wayúu, and Wiwa present unique extended HLA haplotypes and specific alleles, such as HLA-B*48 or HLA-A*24:01, shared with Oceanian populations. Conclusions: These genetic results and anthropological data support prehistorical trans-Pacific (bidirectional) contacts that contributed to the settlement of America and also suggest that the effects of ancient European gene flow cannot be discarded"

The paper mentions the HLA peculiarities and its similarity with Polynesian variants:

"The Chimila, Wayúu, and Wiwa samples studied in the present work revealed the presence of HLA-A*24 (A*24:02) and - B*48 alleles in their genetic profile at varying frequencies. Noteworthily, these alleles are characteristic of populations inhabiting Southeast Asia and the Asian and Pacific islands; they are found in Polynesian and Easter Islander genetic profiles, even in some sites located over 4000 km from the Pacific coast of South America...
If these alleles had been introduced via the Beringian migration route, they would likely be more evenly distributed across the continent rather than being concentrated along or near the Pacific coastline. This suggests the existence of direct genetic and population exchanges between Pacific Islanders and the indigenous peoples of the Americas, though it remains unclear whether these interactions were bidirectional or one-way.... [transpacific contact] could explain why the HLA-A*24(:02) and -B*48 alleles are in the Amerindian populations studied in the present work and also in others distributed along or close to the Pacific coast of America, such as Quechua (Peru and Bolivia, Aymara (Peru and Bolivia), Mayo (Mexico), and Mapuche (Chile), among others. This distribution supports the hypothesis that the settlement of America did not occur only from Asia (through the Bering Strait) but that the peoples of the continent had Pacific transoceanic contacts with other populations.

I am surprised at the remark about HLA-B*48, because in a recent post I included data about the global distribution of this variant and it was not high among Polynesians.

For HLA-A*24 the situation is different, it has a clear distribution that is trans-pacific: Japan, Taiwan, Melanesia, Polynesia, and some spots in America, as you can see in the following map (red circles mark higher frequency in the population, blue is lowest).

HLA-A*24 distribution map. Source

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Ancient Japanese influence in prehistoric South America

My previous post explored the junk shipwrecks and Japanese castaways found along the coast of Northwestern America (Alaska, Canada, the U.S), and also Hawaii. Today we will look into the ancient links between Japan and South America.

Back in 2014 I posted about the Jomons and Ecuadorian Valdivias, and mentioned a paper published in 1962 (Emilio Estrada, Clifford Evans and Betty Meggers, Possible Transpacific Contact on the Coast of Ecuador. Science135,371-372 (1962). DOI:10.1126/science.135.3501.371)

Betty Jane Meggers (1921-2012) suggested that trans-Pacific contact some 5,000 years ago, linking Japan and Ecuador. She based her hypothesis on the similarities between the Japanese Jomon people and the Valdiviann people of Ecuador.

In a paper putting forward this idea was published 60 years ago: Transpacific origin of Valdivia Phase Pottery on Coastal Ecuador (Clifford Evans and Betty J Meggers, XXXVI Congreso Internacional de Americanistas de España 1964, Vol 1, 1966), Meggers and her colleague Evans outline how the contact took place:

"Consolidation of evidence relevant to the origin of the Valdivia Phase leads to a reconstruction of events somewhat as follows. Some 5000 years ago the coasts of Japan and western America were occupied by small groups of people who subsisted by fishing and shellfish gathering supplemented by hunting of ter restrial mammals.
In addition to gathering of plants they may have taken initial steps toward cultivation.
Their tools and utensils though differing in details of construction were of similar kinds fishhooks awis choppers flakes sinkers hammerstones indicating a similar level of technological competence and a similar ecological adaptation.
In Japan sites are found not only along the coast but up river valleys into the interior where salmon fishing hunting of terrestrial fauna and an unusually rich edible flora seem to have approximated wild food conditions on the northwest coast of North America. Bones from the refuse indicate that deep sea fishing provided part of the food supply from early times and dugout canoes have been found that provide information on the type of water craft used.
If a boatload of Early Middle Jomon fishermen left the sheltering bays of Kyushu and went out into the sea off the southeastern coast in October or November they would have entered a zone with some of the strongest currents in the northern Pacific running northeastward at 24 43 miles per day. Records for the 40 year period between 1901 1940 tabulate 802 typhoons of which 130 were in October and 67 in November. A canoe caught too far from shore by one of these storms might easily be swept by the combined northeasterly pressure of wind and current far out to sea before control was regained. Even if the occupants retained possession of their paddles they might have been unable to turn back. During the month of November westerly and northerly winds pre dominate in the northern hemisphere and are steadiest and of greatest force between about the 40th and 55th parallels In addition the percentage of gales increases during November in high latitudes occurring at an average frequency of one every 8 10 days over the greater part of the northern Pacific except near coasts. A combination of these forces would have borne a canoe eastward along the great circle route which on a flattened map curves far north of Hawaii Records during the past century demonstrate the feasibility of such a drift vessel reaching land with living passengers after a voyage of 11 months (Sittig 1896 p 530). Indeed the possibility of survival would be stronger for people accustomed to living from the sea than for land oriented agriculturalists of more recent times. Arriving on the Ecuadorian shore the travelers were met or soon found by the local residents who presumably were living much the same kind of life as had been left behind on Kyushu fishing shellfish gathering a little hunting and gathering of plants for food and fiber. The results make it apparent that the newcomers were welcomed and incorporated into the community. In the process they introduced the art of pottery making and very probably new religious practices that are reflected in the Valdivia stone figurines. Other new ideas may also have been incorporated but no tangible evidence has been recognized The Valdivians quickly became skillful potters and in fact the most striking aspect of the ware is its superiority in quality and artistry to pottery not only of contemporary Kyushu but also of other very early ceramic complexes in the New World. It is an ironical fact that attempts to relate Valdivia ceramics to those of Guañape on the coast of Peru Monagrillo on the Pacific coast of Panama or Puerto Hormiga on the Caribbean coast of Colombia involve more tenuous comparative evidence than can be brought to support the inference of Jomon Valdivia connections.
Undoubtedly this situation if properly under stood would shed light on the kind of contact that underlay diffusion of pottery making both north and south from the coast of Ecuador."

The idea sounds interesting, and it also accounts for the "figurines" or female statuetes (Venus) found in Ecuador.

More recently (see Betty J. Meggers. 2005. The Subversive Significance of Transpacific Contact. The NEARA Journal, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Winter): pp. 22-29.), twenty years ago, Meggers mentions the common variety of Human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV-1), as "another pathology shared by Japanese and Andeans... which is transmitted between adult males and females by sexual contact and between nursing mothers and infants. Today, the highest occurrence in the world of carriers of the HTLV-1 antibody is in Japan, where it reaches a frequency of 6% in Kyushu... Among modern populations in the Americas, it is restricted to the Andean area. Like the parasites, a post-Columbian introduction is ruled out by its presence in the bone marrow of 1500-year-old Chilean mummies... Among modern carriers are the Nanoama, an indigenous group that lives on the lower San Juan River, which drains into the Pacific coast of Colombia."

Meggers added that a study sound genetic similarities between these Nanoma people and the Jomons: "A comparison of the global distribution of 13 genetic markers also identifies the closest affiliation of the Nanoama with people of Jomon ancestry in Japan."

Meggers also suggests that the bottle gourd (Lagenaria sicerania) was brought to America by the Jomons: "an Old World cultigen that appeared in the Americas ca. 6000 B.P.—was among the Jomon introductions is supported by its presence in Japan by the Initial Jomon Period."

Regarding the ceramics, Meggers pointed out "the discovery of another intrusive complex of similar age on the north coast of Colombia, known as San Jacinto."

However, not everyone agrees with this theory. For instance, Scott, G. R. et al., (2021). Peopling the Americas: Not “Out of Japan.” PaleoAmerica, 7(4), 309–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2021.1940440, refute it, without mentioning the Jomons or Ecuador and Colombia. Instead it focused on stone knapping techniques which seem similar in both Jomon Japan and North America:

"A widely accepted model for the peopling of the Americas postulates a source population in the Northeast Asian maritime region, which includes northern Japan. The model is based on similarities in stone artifacts (stemmed points) found in North American sites dating as early as 15,000 years ago and those of comparable age in Japan and neighboring regions of Northeast Asia. Here we show, on the basis of data and analyses in biological anthropology, that the people who made stemmed points in northern Japan (labeled “Incipient Jomon” in the archaeological literature) represent an unlikely source population for the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere."

Even the origin of the ceramics style is disputed, (Kanomata Y, Marcos J, Popov A, Lazin B, Tabarev A. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/new-data-on-early-pottery-traditions-in-south-america-the-san-pedro-complex-ecuador/8885FD3A582F285F93728325C4945B66. Antiquity. 2019;93(369):e17. doi:10.15184/aqy.2019.56), says it originated in a pre-Valdivian culture in Ecuador: "These new data on San Pedro pottery from Real Alto demonstrate its stratigraphical, typological and chronological identity as one of the earliest ceramic forms in the Americas, and they confirm the existence of Early Formative cultural variability in Ecuador." Meaning they may seem similar Jomon and Valdivian, but they have different origins.

Regarding genetics, as mentioned in my 2014 post, there are similarities regarding what then was known as the Y-chromosome haplogroup C3* (nomenclature has changed since then, but the concept is still valid). C3* is rare in America, it is found among the Jomons and also among Ecuadorian and Colombian people, but not elsewhere in America. Surprisingly, the Japanese C3* variant is different to the one found in Colombia and Ecuador.

The American variant is now known as subclade C-P39 (formerly C3b). A paper (Insights into the origin of rare haplogroup C3* Y chromosomes in South America from high-density autosomal SNP genotyping, Mezavilla et al., 2015) studied the matter: "C3* Y chromosomes were discovered in two nearby Native American populations from Ecuador. Since this haplogroup is otherwise nearly absent from the Americas but is common in East Asia, and an archaeological link between Ecuador and Japan is known from 6Kya, an additional migration 6Kya was suggested. Here, we... evaluate three hypotheses: a recent migration from Japan, a single pulse of migration from Japan 6Kya, and no migration after the First Americans... Our simulations revealed good power to detect recent admixture, and that ≥5% admixture 6Kya ago could be detected. However, in the experimental data we saw no evidence of gene flow from Japan to Ecuador. In summary, we can exclude recent migration and probably admixture 6Kya as the source of the C3* Y chromosomes in Ecuador, and thus suggest that they represent a rare founding lineage lost by drift elsewhere." The map below is from this paper.

Hypotheses to explain the presence of C3* Y chromosomes in Ecuador but not elsewhere in the Americas. Green line: the chromosomes were carried by the First American founder population 15–20Kya, but have been lost by drift from other present-day Native American populations examined. Blue line: they were introduced from Japan by a migration identified by archaeologists around 6Kya. Orange line: they were introduced from East Asia in the last generation or two. The violet line represents an ancestral population that split around 25–27Kya into the ancestors of present-day East Asians and Native Americans, and is incorporated into the demographic model used in this work.. From Mezavilla et al. (2015)

They rejected the Jomon admixture 6,000 years ago yet mentioned that "The estimated TMRCA for the combined Ecuadorian C3* chromosomes was 5.0–6.2Kya. The finding of this haplogroup in Ecuador was surprising because C3* is otherwise unreported from the Americas (apart from one example in Alaska), but is widespread and common in East Asia."

The sensitivity of the study is low. Imagine a boatload of Jomon people mixing into Native Americans, they would represent a low percentage of the total population, the study is not sensitive enough to measure low introgression rates: "The power to detect ancient admixture at these levels therefore depends on the sensitivity to detect the reduced admixture in the present-day population. For example, if 0.1% mean population admixture can be detected in the present-day population, we have ∼80% power to detect 5% ancient admixture and ∼100% power to detect 10% ancient admixture. If, instead, we could only detect 0.5% mean admixture in the present-day population, we have ∼0 power to detect 5% ancient admixture and ∼35% power to detect 10% ancient admixture... Immediately after a pulse of 10% migration, almost all individuals in the Admixed population have >5% and >1% admixture. 6Ky later, in the present-day population, about 1% of the Admixed individuals retain 5% admixture, and about 17% retain 1% admixture. In all simulations, negligible admixture is detected in the Control population. Overall, we have good power to detect 10% admixture that took place 6Kya, and some power to detect 5% ancient admixture." The authors indicate that "had good power to detect 1% recent admixture and 10% ancient admixture, with some power to detect 5% ancient admixture" which seems rather high, surely the impact of Jomon people would have been lower, probably it was amplified by genetic drift. Perhaps their Asian genes added some immunity to the Amerindians and this gave them a selective benefit when confronted with Spanish-introduced diseases after 1492.

It is interesting to point out that the Valdivia people lived (see google map) very close to the spot (Manta) where Inca Tupac Yupanqui learned that people in big boats came to trade with the local natives, and which have been assumed to be Polynesians. But, what if they were Japanese? Merchants who had kept up the transpacific contact for millennia...

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Remains found in Colombia 6,000 years-old, unrelated to all South American natives old and current

A Paper (Kim-Louise Krettek et al., A 6000-year-long genomic transect from the Bogotá Altiplano reveals multiple genetic shifts in the demographic history of Colombia. Sci. Adv.11,eads6284(2025).DOI:10.1126/sciadv.ads6284) published last June, reports that they analyzed the genes of people who lived 6,000 years ago in the highlands of Colombia, close to what is now Bogotá, and found that they are unrelated to all the rest of Amerindians that live in South America and are not similar to ancient North American natives. They were completely replaced around 2,000 years ago by other groups crossing through Panama.

The authors write:

"Here, we report genome-wide data of 21 individuals from the Bogotá Altiplano in Colombia between 6000 and 500 years ago. We reveal that preceramic hunter-gatherers represent a previously unknown basal lineage that derives from the initial South American radiation. These hunter-gatherers do not carry differential affinity to ancient North American groups nor contribute genetically to ancient or present-day South American populations. By 2000 years ago, the local genetic ancestry is replaced by populations from Central America."

This is interesting: we have people living in Colombia that are not related to Ancestral North American natives. We'd expect them to be linked to North Americans if the flow of peope into South America was north-to-south across Central America via Panama. But they differ from the 12,700 year-old Anzic-1 people!

They are not related to any known ancient or modern South American natives. But, surely they would have been part of a migration that spread across South America. They were replaced by later arrivals. This shows how the lower genetic diversity in extant Native Americans reflects loss due to whole populations becoming extinct.

The study shows that we have limited knowledge about how many waves of people reached America, when the arrived and when they died out. We also lack data regarding in-depth genetic coverage of ancient and contemporary native people.

Their analysis lead the authors to state that "these results suggest the positioning of Colombia_Checua_6000BP as an outgroup to virtually most Indigenous South Americans." in fact "this group is not more closely related to subsequent ancient Colombians than to any other South American population in our dataset..." These ancient people were replaced by other groups that reached the Colombian highlands: "Overall, the performed analyses provide robust evidence for a major genetic replacement on the Altiplano between 6000 and 2000 years ago"

The paper concludes that they are quite unique and unrelated to other native groups:

"We show that the hunter-gatherer population from the Altiplano dated to around 6000 yr B.P. lack the genetic ancestry related to the Clovis-associated Anzick-1 genome and to ancient California Channel Island individuals, suggesting their affiliation to the southern Native American lineage that became the primary source of ancestry of South Americans by 9000 yr B.P. However, unlike ancient genomes from the Andes and the Southern Cone that are associated with the same wave of ancestry, the analyzed Preceramic individuals from Colombia do not share distinct affinity with any ancient or modern-day population from Central and South America studied to date. Colombia_Checua_6000BP can thus be modeled as a previously undescribed distinct lineage deriving from the radiation event that gave rise to multiple populations across South America during its initial settlement."

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

Korupira, the red haired Amazonian man

O Curupira - Lenda Amazônica. The Curupira, Amazonian legend),[2] by Manoel Santiago (1926) from [3].

The romantic style painting shown above, by Manoel Santiago, depicts a half-naked native sleeping on a hammock by the sea while a lewd satyre covered with reddish hair looks at her and caresses her leg. The satyre is no other than the Brazilian Corupira or Korupira (also Curupira or Kurupira as it has many other names as we will see below).

This “hominid” has been reported across a vast area of South America and may be, together with the other ape-men mentioned in my previous posts (found in Peru, Venezuela and Guyana) belong to the same species although they are known by different names.

Korupira area of distribution. The places mentioned in this blog. The red circles show other places with ape-men (see my previous posts). Copyright ©2012. A. Whittall

The map above shows the distribution range of Korupira has been reported: the Amazonian basin and surrounding areas is this hominid’s territory. The red circles show places where other hominids (or all are the same being?) have been sighted.

First written account 1560
The first written reference about it dates back to the end of May,1560. In a letter written by father José de Anchieta to the General Fatehr at Sao Vicente.
Anchieta ( 1534 – 1597) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary who was living at that time in the oldest permanent town of Brazil, Sao Vicente, in the Bay of Santos, very close to modern Sao Paulo.
I will quote his letter (you can check the original Portuguese text online at the link shown below at [1]). After dealing with real animals found in the area (sloths, tapir, etc.), he goes on to tell his superior about the other creatures:

I will now add some few words abouth the nocturnal spirits or rather demons with which the Indians frighten themselves with. It is well known, and all say that there are certain demons which the Brazilians call corupira that often attack the Indians in the jungle, beating them and bruising them, and killing them. Proof of this is given by our Brothers who have sometimes seen those killed by them. [...].[1]

He added that the natives used to leave on the summits of high mountains, feathers, arrows and similar presents, praying fervently to the Curupiras, so they do nota harm them.[1]

About the Korupira
The name Corupira or Korupira, Kurupira comes from the Tupi language and means curu,a contraction of curumi, boy and pira, body, that is “with the body of a boy”.
There is an excellent book by Joao Barbosa Rodrigues (1890), which you can read in full (Portuguese) by following the link shown below at [4] which deals entirely with this mythical being. He transcribes many native stories about it. He also describes it and its natural distribution over a vast area of South America. Below I will cite Barbosa Rodrigues: [4]

• In Matto Grosso it is also known as Korupira. But some mistake him for the “wolf-man” or werewolf (Lobis-homem in Portuguese). He is a small sized black man that mounts a wild boar.
• In Paraguay he is known as Kaapora and looks like an old native who is master of the forest.
• In Amazonas and Pará states he is known as Kurumi, has only one leg and “Red hair, which civilization has turned into a red bertet (Pará).
• He has a wife Yatacy (Amazonas) or Tatámanha (Pará) is an old dark native dressed in rags. They have children.
• It is known as Máguare in Venezuela, Salvaje (savage) in Colombia and Chudiachaque in the Inca Peru. In Bolivia it is the Kauá of the Cocamas.
• In Perú, in the mountains it is a nearly black satyre whose hair reacheas his waist, and who kidnaps women for his orgies.
• The Makuchys of the jungles in Roraima (Brazil), call it Pokái and the Parikys of Yatapú River know it as Iurokó.
• it carried about a wooden axe

Red hair: a Neanderthal?
The description of Korupira as being red headed is interesting if we believe that homind with red hair was shown on Piri Reis 1513 map of South America.

It was widely distributed
As we can see Joao Barbosa Rodriguez believed that the myth was indeed Pan-American and shared by the native peoples of Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Perú, Bolivia and Parguay . These people believed that Korupira protected and reigned over the jungles and its creatures.
In its northern reaches, in Colombia, it was also known with a different name: Boraro.

The Boraro skin
In Colombia, Corupira is also known as Boraro , Pírrarro and Hojarasquín and is described as a brown skinned giant with thick fingers [5].
There is a very odd story involving this creature which I will transcribe below [6], it deals with the The Bará, or Fish People (Tukanoans), of the Northwest Amazon, along the area shared by Brazil and Colombia.
These people which call themselves “Waípinõmakã”, live along the upper Tiquié and upper Igarapé Inambú rivers (see the map).
The Boraro’s skin myth is the following: a man found the skin of a boraro while its owner was fishing shrimps, “the skin was like clothing; the boraro always removed it to swim”, the man put the skin on, and it took control over him. It made him do some dreadfull things: kill and ate he boraro, go to his home and take over his place there –even sleep with his wife. Years later he returned to his tribe and told his story. He went back with a relative to the boraro territory and the relative donned the boraro wife’s skinn while she was fishing. They ate the woman and returned home. Their kinsmen refused to believe them so all went back to the boraro land. The two original men put on the boraro furs and killed and ate the other men.
So it seems that the “furry” “hairy” ape-man, the Boraro = Korupira is just a man wearing a fur, otherwise there is no explanation for a furry man to remove his fur. Could this imply that they were primitive beings wearing skins as clothing, just as our distant ancestors did?
Is this legend a myth about primitive Neanderthal men and their barbaric (i.e. murderous and cannibalistic) ways?

Sources


[1] Anchieta, José de, S. J. (1933). Cartas, informações, fragmentos historicos e sermões / Padre Joseph de Anchieta. Rio de Janeiro : Civilização Brasileira, 1933. Pp.128 Carta X.
[2] Painting: Manoel Santiago (1897-1987): O Curupira - Lenda Amazônica (The Curupira, Amazonian legend), 1926. Oil on cloth 96 x 157 cm. Taken from [3]
[3] Neto, João Augusto da Silva, Figueiredo, Aldrin Moura de. Uma imagem, duas narrativas: as representações de uma lenda amazônica em Manoel Santiago. 19&20, Rio de Janeiro, v. VII, n. 1, jan./mar. 2012.
[4] Barbosa Rodrigues, João, (1890). Poranduba amazonense, ou kochiyma-uara porandub, 1872-1887. Rio de Janeiro: Typ. de G. Leuzinger & Filhos. pp. 6, 12, 13
[5] Guillermo Abadía, (1994). 2.300 adiciones al vocabulario folklórico colombiano. Volumen 142, Biblioteca Banco Popular.Fondo de Promoción de la Cultura del Banco Popular
[6] Jean Ellizabeth Jackson, (1983). The Fish People: Linguistic Exogamy and Tukanoan Identity in Northwest Amazonia. Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology. Nbr. 39. Cambridge University Press, 1983. Pp 108 – 111.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2012 by Austin Whittall © 

De Loÿs ape-man or Montandon's hoax

 

Loys Ape-man Original photograph from Montandon's paper [2]

The Ameranthropoides loysi, a mysterious ape-man that is said to inhabit the South American jungles along the border between Colombia and Venezuela, is often mentioned in cryptozoological articles. The photograph which I post above (which in my case comes from the original 1929 article on the subject), is also included as proof of the existence of this creature.

I want to thank Pablo Infantino, who wrote to me commenting my recent post on hominids in Guyana and brought up the matter of Loys ape which many sites link with the Guyana cryptid. Pablo calls it the "famous (I would add doubtful) Loys ape". His comment prompted me to write about it, and yes, it is indeed "doubtful" and in my opinion it is not a real creature, just some kind of hoax put together by a racist Swiss scientist to back up his ideas about the origin of mankind. It is not related to the Guyana hominds mentioned in my previous posts.

But, lets read the facts:

The De Loÿs Ape-men story

A swiss geologist named Francois De Loÿs (1892 - 1935) explored the area south of Maracaibo along the Tarra, Catatumbo and Zulia rivers in Colombia (see the area in the maps below: a Google map and the original paper map [2])


View larger map

Map showing location of Loys Ape-man Original photograph from Montandon's paper [2]

According to Montandon: De Loys explored this area between 1917 and 1920 and during this period, he came across a couple of ape-men or ape-like creatures which, walking upright, like men, came out of the forest, gesticulated, threw their own excrement at the expeditionary group, yelled at them and broke off branches which they brandished as weapons. [2]

As they grew more aggressive, the party, in a typical early 1900s attitude, opened fire and killed the female. The male ran away into the jungle. [2]

The creature was flayed to preserve its skin and skull also, but alas, "the skull fragments were lost" [2]. Loÿs knowing the value of his finding, kept the jaw for a long time, but it too got lost during his 3 year journey.[2]

Montandon and his paper

A Swiss anthropologist, George Montandon made the discovery public ten years later, when he published a paper [2] that named the ape and declared it to be an anthropoid (i.e. a tail-less, advanced primate variety of monkey, unknown in America such as the gorilla, chimpanzee or orangutan), the Ameranthropoides loysi or, "Loys' American human-like ape". All this based on a photograph and no physical evidence!

Among the things mentioned by Montandon were its great height (1,57 m) and the female's large external genitalia (more on this later).

He also added some strange information, evidently to support his theory of South American anthropoids from local sources:

Mayan Gorillas

At the end of his paper he adds this strange final note, citing a librarian of the Société des Américanistes de Paris by the name of Vosy-Bourbon, who translated from II Palacio (Santa Fé, New Mexico), vol. 25, sept. 22-29, 1928, p. 188-189, the following:

American Archaeology
Gorilla-Like Figure in Yucatan.
Monstrous gorilla-like figures of stone, coming from the gorilla-less land of the Mayas, are one of the unexplained curiosities of the Archaeological and Historical Museum in Merida. There are two of these creatures, legless, but standing more than five feet high on their stumps of thighs. They are rude but powerful works of art, done in rough and pitted limestone. They were brought to the museum a short time ago... seems bisexual, for while it has the masculine characteristics, it carries a child, motherlike, in its left arm...They were found near the town of Tekax, Yucatan [2][4]

Montandon's paper is in French, but I found the original English language version above. Yes, it is true and it actually exists (check it out here [4]).

He later wrote about them again (Montandon George, 1931. Les statues simiesques du Yucatán. Journal de la Société des Américanistes, Vol 23, Issue 23-1, pp. 249-250) in an article titled "The ape-like statues of Yucatan". But no photographs were included (I have found some online, but am not certain that they are genuine.

The Yucatan gorillas deserve more research, but lets get back to the American anthropoid...

A normal Spider Monkey not an anthropoid

I am no expert, but the first time I saw the photograph of Loÿs ape-man I immediately thought it was some kind of South American monkey whose tail was concealed in the photograph. Its long limbs and slender body are very unlike those of "anthropoids" and they look definitively like those of a spider monkey. Compare the photograph below with the one at the top of this post. They are the same animals!

Spider Monkeys, notice one is walking upright. Source: Internet

The Loÿs ape was apparently (according to Montandon) much larger than the Spider Monkey, at 1,57 m (about 5 ft.) which are not more than 1 m tall (3 ft.). The photograph deliberately avoids anything that would allow a size comparison -other than the box, of unknown size.

But others have investigated the matter and concluded that it is all a hoax:

The Hoax with a racist tint

The fraud was uncovered by Vilorda and Urbani [5], who originally published a letter [3] which sheds light on the matter. This is a letter written by a Dr. Enrique Tejeda MD (1889 - 1980), to a Mr. Guillermo José Schael in July 1962. Tejeda tells Schael that while he was in Paris in 1919, he went to a conference given by a Mr. Montandon who presented the photograph shown above as that of a tail-less male anthropoid from the unknown parts of Venezuela.

Tejeda says that he knew it was tailless because he saw it being amputated and that at the conference he made this clear, in front of the audience: In 1917 while working with Francois De Loys in Perijá, prankster De Loys was given a monkey with a wounded tail so it had to be cut off. De Loys and his monkey became inseparable. While they were in Mene Grande the monkey died so De Loys photographed it. And that is the photo that Montandon presented to the world. The monkey is, according to Tejeda a Marimonda or spider monkey. He adds that evidently Montandon waited for ten years before going public again, hoping that the conference upheaval had been forgotten.[3]

The Vilorda and Urbani letter gives a reason for Montandon's fraud: He upheld the theory of Human Hologenesis, and wrote a book about it: L'Ologenese humaine — (Ologenisme), 1928, which stated that different races originated in different parts of the Earth. A racist theory which upheld the fallacy of Arian supremacy, it contended that "whites" descended from the archaic Homo sapiens, the Cro-Magnon, the "yellow" people descended from the orangutan, while the "blacks" derived from the chimps and gorillas.

He clearly needed an American anthropoid to be the ancestor of the "red skinned" people!, so he made up his Ameranthropoid[3] Also, the timing of the paper (1929) was perfect to butress his Hologenetic notions (he published his book in 1928).

By the way, Tejeda is right, and it seems that by 1929, Montandon had done his homework (he published that it was a female and expressly mentioned its large clitoris). The following quote clearly states that it was a female: "spider monkeys of South America [have] a pendulous and erectile clitoris long enough to be mistaken for a penis"[1]

Sources

[1] Joan Roughgardenm (2004). Evolution's rainbow: diversity, gender, and sexuality in nature and people. University of California Press, pp 39-40
[2] Montandon, G., (1929). Découverte d'un singe d'apparence anthropoïde en Amérique du Sud . Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris, 21 (6): 183-195
[3] Viloria, Angel; Urbani, Franco and Urbani, Bernardo. (1999). Interciencia. Vol 24. 04. pp 229+ Cartas al Director. La Verdad sobre el mono venezolano.
[4] Frank Thone. Gorilla Carvings ara Maya Mystery. Science News Letter. Vol 14. 1928. pp.313
[5] Bernardo Urbani, Ángel L. Viloria, (2009) Ameranthropoides Loysi Montandon 1929: The History of a Primatological Fraud LibrosEnRed

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2012 by Austin Whittall ©