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Papio and man-headed beast. Published in Amsterdam in 1673 by Jacob Von Meurs for Arnoldus Montanus \ De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld\" after the first
Papio and man-headed beast. Published in Amsterdam in 1673 by Jacob Von Meurs for Arnoldus Montanus \ De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld\" after the first book related to America by Ogilby. This is from the German edition titled \"Die Unbekante Neue welt, oder Beschruebung des Welt-teils Amerika\". The images are confusing on many levels. The Papio parion 1 seems based on Topsell's Papio, which looked even more like a baboon than this image, but was described as a hyaena (this mistake goes back to Gessner 1551). Neither hyaena or baboon are found in South America of course. The man faced Papio 2 may be based on earlier representations of a tethered three toed sloth (a true South American) for similar see Topsell's \"bear-ape arctopithecus\". Few authors or engravers in the 16th-17th century had direct experience with the exotic animals they described. As yet zoology was barely a science."
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Photo credit: © PAUL D STEWART/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -human, 17th, america, ancestor, animals, artwork, century, cryptids, cryptozoology, exploration, explorers, fantastic, fantasy, gesner, gessner, history, human, illustration, monsters, montanus, mythology, natural, ogilby, origins, south, strange, topsell, wierd, world