YouTuber Coyote Peterson’s “primate skull” claims raise suspicions among scientists
3 min read
YouTuber Coyote Peterson has become a hot topic on social media after claiming that he found a ‘primate skull’ in British Columbia.
Here is everything you need to know.
Coyote Peterson claims he found a ‘primate skull’
Coyote Peterson’s recent Instagram post has the internet talking when he allegedly found a large primate skull.
The 40-year-old YouTuber shared a series of images of his Instagram handle on Thursday, 7th July.
The pictures consisted of a massive skull seemingly submerged in dirt and muddy water.
A couple of photos show Peterson retrieving the alleged skull from the muddy pool.
He outlined the post with a caption that read, ‘BREAKING NEWS.’
The internet personality added that he ‘found a large primate skull in British Columbia.’
He further mentioned that he ‘kept this secret for several weeks’ since he did not want government officials to ‘try to cease our footage’ of the excavation.
The post read, ‘I’m sure these pics will be taken down… as will probably the video by government or state park officials… but the skull is safe.’
Peterson wrote, ‘Absolutely unreal… we thought it was a bear skull when we found it, I can 100% guarantee it is not. The skull was found partially buried underground in a deep back forest ravine after a massive storm in the Pac Northwest where clearly a bunch of trees and earth were disturbed.’
He asked his followers, ‘I don’t know if it’s what you all think it might be… but I cannot explain finding a primate skull in the Pac Northwest without wondering! What do you believe?’
Furthermore, Peterson said that he will be releasing an episode based on the same this weekend on Animal Planet’s Brave Wilderness.
Scientists respond to Coyote Peterson’s claims
Several scientists have questioned the credibility of Coyote Peterson’s alleged discovery. They also implied that the YouTuber’s actions might have crossed a few ethical and legal lines.
Coyote Peterson (of Brave Wilderness fame) has apparently found a primate skull in British Columbia. I don't need to tell you how big of a deal this is if real pic.twitter.com/PGLXQnUxLO
— Ante D. Luvian (@uncle_deluge) July 8, 2022
According to a report by Live Science, experts said, ‘Peterson’s claim is highly suspect and that secretly extracting and transporting animal remains across national borders may be illegal.’
Yinan Wang, author of The 50 State Fossils: A Guidebook for Aspiring Paleontologists mentioned that the skull resembles a gorilla skull that’s sold on AliExpress.
Coyote Peterson has made the final jump from loathsome self-aggrandising sensationalist to actively generating and spreading misinformation, in this instance by faking the discovery of a ‘Bigfoot’ skull (clearly a gorilla skull) and bragging about smuggling it Unacceptable. https://t.co/JaG0ERr21I
— Dr Mark D. Scherz (@MarkScherz) July 8, 2022
Moreover, he shared a side-by-side comparison of AliExpress products and the images posted by Peterson.
Wang tweeted, ‘Looking at the pics, it’s not the Bone Clones gorilla skull. But it’s very close to this one on AliExpress spotted by @offshoreoddity, although it has this weird bone on the side of the skull.’
