TrueAuthority.com's "Quest for the Giant Sloth": An Analysis, part II: Expedition, the Sloth, and DNA Evidence

Preserved Shasta ground sloth dung.
Image credit cindysbeentrippin.com.

This post is a continuation of a previous entry.

Now, we'll move on to examining the main attraction, is it were: the first actual link on the page (I wanted to get the minor links out of the way in that first post), "The Expedition".


This page recounts the alleged events of John's alleged expedition. Allegedly (I cannot stress that word enough), the team arrived at the edge of what I, from now on, will be calling the wilderness (the area of the Amazon which has not been explored or documented) on the 18th of March, 2001. They were detained by some natives, and had to give up a camera, some film for a different camera, an an instant thermo pack, in return for their release. The Indians told them about the Mapinguary, and gave them a vague direction to go in to find it.

The descriptions for the next few days are basically boring: nothing of any particular interest happens. On the 22nd, however, John allegedly found a set of tracks, and the giant dung pile. Apparently, John left the rainforest to have it analysed, whilst his team stayed behind to continue tracking the Mapinguary. That's it for the expedition page. There's really very little to comment on here.

Next, "The Sloth". This provides a not-so-detailed description of ground sloths in general. It's mainly about the Ramon Lista sighting, and goes into little detail about whatever sloth the dung DNA was from.

Elsewhere on the main page, the DNA is identified confusingly. At one point, it is said to be an exact match to the DNA of "the prehistoric ground sloth". Elswhere, it is said that it came from a brand new species of the family Bradyopdidae - a family which contains no ground sloths.

Given everything that has been found in this post and the last, it, unfortunately, must be concluded that, in all likelihood, this whole thing is, in fact, a large pile of dung. Not fresh dung, either. However, if only there were a way to read the image of the DNA (see previous post), the mystery of the Mapinguary could be proven true once and for all.

Read more about the Mapinguary. 

(Note: In one of his more recent books, Alien Zoo, Karl Shuker mentions an Ohio-based scientist named John Lewis who was studying Bigfoot hairs. Readers may recognise this as the John Lewis who allegedly ventured into the Amazon. And, sure enough, at the end of the Alien Zoo entry, Shuker mentions that John, at the time, was planning to go to the Amazon to find the Mapinguary.

Evidence that this whole thing isn't a hoax?)