Brian Regal. Searching for Sasquatch: Crackpots, Eggheads, and Cryptozoology.

Abstract

Cryptozoology has been described as the converse of paleontology: that is to say, paleontologists study creatures for which there is evidence, but which no one (at least no human who could leave a record) has ever seen, while cryptozoologists study creatures that have frequently been seen, but for which there is no evidence. Of course there are many other differences between these fields, including the one conspicuously, if facetiously, signaled in Brian Regal's subtitle. Paleontologists tend to be conventionally credentialed scientists; cryptozoologists, however, tend to be amateur enthusiasts. This dichotomy is especially marked among the subset of cryptozoologists who are the focus of Regal's work: those interested in (or often, in his words, obsessed with) the humanlike creature known variously as “sasquatch,” “yeti,” and “bigfoot,” among other things.