[gpm]

Are you suggesting that there isn't an unbroken chain of oral tradition? That for some generations in the middle every child didn't talk to their parents or other members of the older generation?

It's a game of broken telephone no doubt, but I don't see how that chain could not exist.

[TaupeRanger]

I think the salient point is that it's likely, given our imaginations, that we would've concocted stories about monstrous humanoids regardless of whether they actually existed alongside us. It shouldn't be surprising.

[username90]

50k years would be ~2500 generations. I doubt any traces of oral traditions are left after thousands of generations.