Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

gasoline crat e wit h it s chin propped up by a
st ick. Ot her phot os were t ragically lost when de
Loys’s boat capsized. The skull was ret ained, but
t he expedit ion’s cook used it as a salt cont ainer,
and it disint egrat ed (as did t he pelt ).
Possible explanations:
(1) Thought t o be a Black spider monkey
(Ateles paniscus) by Sir Art hur Keit h, who
suspect ed t hat t he animal had been
creat ively manipulat ed for t he camera by de
Loys. However, t he report ed size alone
makes t his doubt ful, since t hese monkeys
are rarely more t han 3 feet 6 inches when
st anding on t he hind legs. No t ail is visible
in t he phot o, and t he animal’s body is
t hicker and more massive. De Loys’s ape is
less hairy, has more powerful jaws, and has
an oval face wit h lit t le prognat hism.
(2) The Whit e-bellied spider monkey (A.
belzebuth) is a st rong possibilit y, especially if
t he size of t he crat e in t he phot o is less t han
16 inches, inst ead of t he 18–20 inches
est imat ed by George Mont andon in his
analysis of t he case. Ivan Sanderson favored
t his explanat ion, suggest ing t hat t he
decomposing body had already st art ed
bloat ing when t he phot o was t aken.
(3) Loren Coleman and Michel Raynal
argue persuasively t hat t he st ory was a hoax
by Mont andon, based on de Loys’s phot o of
a spider monkey. Mont andon would have
done t his in order t o lend credence t o his
racist t heory t hat primat e evolut ion t ook
place independent ly in Sout h America, wit h
Indians as t he ult imat e result .
(4) An unclassified ape or monkey known
locally as t he Mono Grande.
(5) A surviving Protopithecus brasiliensis, a
fruit -eat ing spider monkey from t he Lat e
Pleist ocene of east ern Brazil t hat was t wice
as large as any ext ant species.
Sources: George Mont andon, “Découvert e
d’un singe d’apparence ant hropöide en
Amérique du Sud,” Journal de la Société des
Américanistes de Paris 21, no. 6 (1929):
183–186; George Mont andon, “Un singe
d’apparence ant hropöide en Amérique du Sud,”
Comptes Rendus de l’Academie des Sciènces 188
(1929): 815–817; François de Loys, “A Gap
124 DEDIEKA
Filled in t he Pedigree of Man?” Illustrated
London News 84 (June 15, 1929): 1040; Francis
M. Ashley-Mont ague, “The Discovery of a New
Ant hropoid Ape in Sout h America?” Scientific
Monthly 29 (1929): 275–279; Léonce Joleaud,
“Remarques sur l’evolut ion des primat es Sud-
Americains, à propos du grand singe du
Venezuela,” La Revue Scientifique 67 (1929):
269–273; Art hur Keit h, “The Alleged Discovery
of an Ant hropoid Ape in Sout h America,” Man
29 (1929): 135–136; Nello Beccari,
“Amerant hropoides Loysi, gli at elini e
l’import anza della morfologica cerebrale nella
classificazione delle scimmie,” Archivio per
l’Antropologia e la Etnologia 73 (1943): 5–114;
Don Cousins, “Ape Myst ery,” Wildlife 24 (April
1982): 148–149; Michael T. Shoemaker, “The
Myst ery of t he Mono Grande,” Strange
Magazine 7 (April 1991): 2–5, 56–60; Marc E.
W. Miller and Khryzt ian E. Miller, “Furt her
Invest igat ion int o Loy’s ‘Ape’ in Venezuela,”
Cryptozoology 10 (1991): 66–71; Loren Coleman
and Michel Raynal, “De Loys’ Phot ograph: A
Short Tale of Apes in Green Hell, Spider
Monkeys, and Ameranthropoides loysi As t he
Tools of Racism,” The Anomalist, no. 4
(Aut umn 1996): 84–93; Let t ers, The Anomalist,
no. 5 (Summer 1997): 143–153; Ángel L.
Viloria, Franco Urbani, and Bernardo Urbani,
“François de Loys (1892–1935) y un hallazgo
desdeñado: La hist oria de una cont roversia
ant ropológica,” Interciencia 23 (March-April
1998): 94–100; Karl Shuker, “Monkeying
around wit h Our Memories?” Strange Magazine,
no. 20 (December 1998): 40– 42; Let t ers,
Interciencia 24 (July-August 1999): 229–231.
Dediéka
Myst ery Primate of Cent ral Africa.
Etymology: Kot a or Teke (Bant u) word.
Variant names: Dodiéka, Tschimpênso
(Yombe/Bant u).
Physical description: Like a chimpanzee but
larger and wit h a black face. Sagit t al crest .
Distribution: Republic of t he Congo; Gabon.
Possible explanations:
(1) Originally t hought t o be a Chimpanzee
(Pan troglodytes) x Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla)
hybrid or t ransit ion species.