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de Loys' Ape is reportedly a large ape-like primate in South America.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Typical Description 3 Misidentification Candidates 4 Extinct Candidates 5 Unknown Species 6 Documentation

Overview

Outside of humans, there are no recognized large primate species in South America. Certainly, none that would approach a human in size and be naturally tail-less. There are reports of hairy bipeds, but de Loy's Ape stands apart.

In the case of cryptids (reported animals unrecognized by science), there are typically many reports but limited evidence, and almost never clear photographs. de Loy's Ape is the opposite: one very clear picture from a specific identifiable sighting with a well-recorded narrative.

François de Loys was a geologist on a series of expeditions looking for oil. He was somewhere near Columbia and Venezuela in the 1920s. His group was approached by two large primates, apparently a male and a female. The animals appeared threatening, and even defecated into their hands and threw the feces at the geologist's group. They shot the female,and the male left.

They posed the body of the creature sitting on a crate, and took a picture. They took additional pictures and the hide and skull of the animal. Unfortunately, the expedition lost many members, and all of the evidence except for the one picture.

That one bizarre photograph was seen quite some time after de Loys' return to Europe by a friend of his (George Montandon) who was an anthropologist. Montandon convinced de Loys to go public with the picture and his account of the encounter. Montandon proposed the scientific name Ameranthropoides loysi.

Loren Coleman has suggested that Montandon might have been involved in some kind of hoax. The anthropologist had proposed that African humans might have been descended from gorillas and Asian humans descended from orangutans. It would serve his theories of human origin if there was a large ape in South America as well.

Typical Description

de Loy reported the creature at 1.57m tall, 36 teeth, and no tail.

Misidentification Candidates

• Spider monkey (but it would have to be either mis-measured or much bigger than any known specimens)

Extinct Candidates

Unknown Species

• AAn unknown species of spider monkey, but there are characteristics that would not fit (such as the lack of a tail)
• Another primate species

Documentation

To see specific information (such as books, and so on), please click the de Loys' Ape category link at the the bottom of this article. To see other articles that reference the de Loys' Ape, please click the What Links Here tool in the toolbox at the bottom of this page. Category:de Loys' Ape]]