Moreinformation is coming out that was not clear in the press releaseitself. Over one hundred individual samples were processed and thisallowed an excellent work up of the DNA. Earlier tests wouldcertainly have been utterly misled by the human component in themitochondrial DNA and would have in fact been naturally dismissed ascontamination. The real achievement here is that we have now gottenpast that little issue.
Wehave two reasonable candidates at least for the father. One is thereported Eurasian wild man who may also be a hybrid and we certainlyhave evidence supporting recent outright intermarriage that backsthis up. The other is the fossil gigantopithecus who may well havebeen the progenitor of both the Sasquatch and the Eurasian wild man.
Sofar we have no indication of such progenitors in North America butthe hybrid situation strongly suggests that the creature participatedin the later crossing through the Bering Plain as the Ice Age ended. Recall that a Sasquatch was seen tramping North this summer deep inthe barrens of Northern Quebec.
Thisalso explains the disappearance of gigantopithecus. The human hybridwould have taken over the ecological niche as its populationexpanded ultimately absorbing the rest. The same may well havehappened to the neanderthal branch of humanity and any number ofother small groups.
Bigfoot DNA TestsProve Hairy Creature Exists, Genetic Researcher Says
Posted: 11/28/201211:03 am EST Updated: 11/28/2012 11:35 am EST
Lee Speigel
lee.speigel@huffingtonpost.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/bigfoot-dna-proves-creature-exists-genetic_n_2199984.html
Bigfoot is real. Atleast that's what veterinarian Melba S. Ketchum claims aftera five-year study of more than 100 DNA samples that she believescomes from the elusive hairy beast.
Under Ketchum'sdirection at DNA Diagnostics in Nacogdoches, Texas, a teamof researchers has concluded that the creature may be a humanrelative that somehow developed around 15,000 years ago as a resultof a hybrid cross between Homo sapiens with an unknown primate.
Ketchum's research hasyet to stand the scrutiny of independent researchers. While manypeople have claimed to have seen the creature, its existence hasnever been confirmed, despite a plethora of photos and footprints[10,000 separate individual eye witness reports – arclein ].The ongoing search is the subject of Animal Planet's "FindingBigfoot" television series.
"Well, it came tome, I didn't go after it, that's for sure," Ketchum said of theevidence of Bigfoot's existence in an exclusive interview with TheHuffington Post. "I did not believe in these creatures. But mylab did a lot of animal testing, and we did species identification.We didn't have any hits on anything interesting until five yearsago."
Ketchum's professionalwork includes nearly 30 years in genetics research and forensics.After her team attempted DNA sequencing of hair samples from analleged Bigfoot encounter, they found some unusual things in thehair. But there wasn't enough DNA to conclusively verify what theywere seeing.
DNA Diagnosticsreceived more samples to investigate -- including hair, blood, salivaand urine, all reportedly from various Bigfoot sightings.
Ketchum's teamconsists of experts in genetics, forensics, imaging and pathology.The researcher said she believes that over the past five years, theteam has successfully found three Sasquatch nuclear genomes -- anorganism's hereditary code -- leading them to suggest that theanimal is real and a human hybrid.
Ketchum's study showedthat part of the DNA her team sequenced revealed an unknownprimate species, she said, which suggests that Bigfoot is a realcreature that resulted from this primate "crossing with femaleHomo sapiens."
"They're not anyof the large apes -- they branch off as a separate lineage,"Ketchum said. "My personal theory is that it probablybranched off and evolved in parallel with the rest of the primatelineage."[we also have an apparent parallel linage in the fossil record fromAfrica – arclein ]
The overall results ofKetchum's study will soon be revealed, she said, after apeer-reviewed journal is published. But skeptic BenjaminRadford is dubious about the outcome of this latest attempt togive credibility to the existence of Bigfoot.
"If the data aregood and the science is sound, any reputable science journal wouldjump at the chance to be the first to publish this groundbreakinginformation," Radford, the deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirermagazine, wrote in LiveScience.com.
Radford suggests thatif the mitochondrial DNA is identical to Homo sapiens (modernhumans), it could mean one of two things.
"The first,endorsed by Ketchum, is that Bigfoot ancestors had sex with womenabout 15,000 years ago and created a half-human hybrid speciescurrently hiding across North America.
"There is,however, another, simpler interpretation of such results: The sampleswere contaminated. Whatever the sample originally was -- Bigfoot,bear, human or something else -- it's possible that the people whocollected and handled the specimens accidentally introduced their DNAinto the sample, which can easily occur with something as innocent asa spit, sneeze or cough," Radford wrote.[that is merely the first reasonable assumption and it has kept otherevidence out of the loop until now - arclein]
Not so, countersKetchum.
"Early on, westarted getting human results on the mitochondrial DNA -- that'smaternally inherited and it can show where you're from," Ketchumsaid. "Different labs had already tested alleged Sasquatchsamples, and all of these labs were getting human results, so theyjust threw it out.[WHOOPS ]
"We split thesamples with another forensic lab -- one worked on it manually whilethe other did it robotically, extracting the DNA -- and we ranseveral tests to confirm there was no contamination. And we ended upgetting human sequences on many samples."
In LiveScience.com,Radford pointed out that since "There is no reference sample ofBigfoot DNA to compare it with, by definition, there cannot be aconclusive match."
Ketchum's work isn'tthe only ongoing research project aimed at trying to confirm, throughDNA, the existence of Bigfoot.
In the U.K.,researchers from Oxford University and the Lausanne Museum of Zoologyare examining alleged Bigfoot remains to test for unusual DNA.Their results will be submitted to a peer-reviewed scientificjournal.
One theory about apossible explanation for Bigfoot or Sasquatch is that it could turnout to be a large primate called Gigantopithecus, 9-foot-tallapes that presumably went extinct around 100,000 years ago.
"My workinghypothesis has always been that this is very likely Gigantopithecusextant -- that we have a species that's in the right place at theright time, the right size and some of the right characteristics inthe form of Gigantopithecus in East Asia during the late Pleistocene[era] to have expanded into North America," said JeffMeldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho StateUniversity.
"It's not amatter of belief or wishful thinking -- it's a matter of thepreponderance of the evidence, be it eyewitness accounts, footprintsor hair that defies identification or attribution to known species,"Meldrum told HuffPost.
"We're waitingfor the results in studies that are ongoing, looking at potential DNAevidence -- DNA sequences extracted from samples of hair and bloodand tissue. All of these things are the basis and motivation forundertaking this kind of approach," he said.Meldrum, authorof Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, is skeptical of most Bigfootvideos that show up on YouTube.
"In this day andage of cellphones, smartphones and Handycams, why aren't there morepictures? And there are, but it's also a testament to the fact thatmost people are lousy photographers, even if they're composed longenough to snap a picture in that brief instant of an encounter withsomething strange and unusual like this."
If a peer review ofKetchum's findings eventually confirms Bigfoot's existence to thesatisfaction of the scientific community, she's adamant about whatthe next step should be.
"I’d like tosee them have the same protections as any other human as far as theright to life, liberty and the pursuit of their own happiness,meaning that they be left alone and not put under a microscope, nothunted, not harassed, not chased through the woods -- leave themalone," she said. "They’ve existed for thousands of yearsthis way and don’t need habitats set aside. They’ve lived underour noses all this time."
Yakima Herald getsstatement from Dr. Melba Ketchum
The wholeSasquatch thing may be moving from the realm of the weird to thelevel of “truth is stranger than fiction.”
That willdepend on how mainstream science responds to the impending release ofa five-year DNA study apparently suggesting Sasquatch exists, and isnot entirely human and not entirely non-human. It is, says thestudy’s author, a hybrid cross of the two.
The researchwas done by a team led by Melba Ketchum, a former veterinarian whomoved into genetic research 27 years ago and runs DNA Diagnostics,Inc., based in Texas. Ketchum had hoped to see the results announcedin a peer-reviewed scientific journal but they were “outed” lastFriday by a note on the website of the Russia-based InternationalCenter of Hominology.
The center’sdirector, listed on the site as Dr. Igor Burtsev, wrote thatKetchum’s findings prove Sasquatch or Bigfoot “is human like usonly different, a hybrid of a human with unknown species.”
Reached ontelephone Monday, Ketchum said the 50-page manuscript containing theresearch and DNA findings is still in peer review at a scientificjournal. As for whether the premature announcement would impact that,she said, “I hope not. So far we haven’t heard anything that saysit’s going to stop it.” As for when the study might becomepublic, she said, “in weeks instead of many months, that’s forsure.”
Ketchum saidthe study had sequenced “three complete Sasquatch nuclear genomes”and determined the species is a human hybrid — “the result ofmales of an unknown hominin species crossing with female Homosapiens.”
Sasquatchnuclear DNA, Ketchum said, “is incredibly novel and not at all whatwe had expected. While it has human nuclear DNA within its genome,there are also distinctly non-human, non-archaic hominin (memberof the genus Homo, including Homo sapiens), and non-ape sequences.We describe it as a mosaic of human and novel non-humansequence.”
What does that mean in non-scientific terms?David Paulides of North America Bigfoot Research, one of severalprivate groups and individuals that financed the DNA study, said theresearch makes one thing clear: Sasquatch isn’t nonexistent and itisn’t an ape. It’s human. Or, at least, partly human.
“It falls inthe realm of human,” Paulides said. “It has a human mother we canidentify, that somehow evolved in the last 15,000 years, but in anunusual aspect of this we can’t track the father or find out whothe father is. Based on millions of DNA strains that exist around theworld, the father doesn’t exist.
“The onlyspecies we can identify is human. The male that procreated isunidentifiable.”
Then what is it?
“Some peopleout there have said we’ve used this word, ‘angel DNA.’ That isnot true,” said Paulides, a former police officer in San Jose,Calif. “But there is some very unusual aspects to that male DNAthat cannot be explained right now.”
Ketchum’sTexas lab didn’t do all of the testing. She said 13 labs — atuniversities, state-run forensive labs and private-sector facilities— were involved in the process, which included blind studies “andrepeatability on most of it.” She said the labs tested 109samples of all kinds — hair, tissue, blood and saliva.
“And allof them had the same results,” Paulides said. “If someonepooh-poohs it, they either haven’t read (the study) or they justrefuse to believe it.”
AnotherSasquatch DNA-research project is underway at Oxford University inEngland, but is entirely unrelated to the Ketchum study, said ThomCantrall, a Sasquatch author who hosted an international Sasquatchsymposium in the Tri-Cities last s summer.
“They’renot working in concert at all,” Cantrall said. “It’s entirelydifferent, with entirely different samples. Some of the samples arefrom the same people.”
The release ofKetchum’s findings, Cantrall said, is “igniting a war” amongdifferent factions in the Bigfoot-believing community — thoseadamant that the creature is an ape or gorilla, and those who areconvinced it’s more human than not.
The earlyannouncement of Ketchum’s research “has the ape faction totallyup in arms,” Cantrall said. “There’s so much personalpsychology involved here — people who have staked their reputationon (Sasquatch) being ape that they can’t back away from that.”
Paulides saidforensic testing of supposed Sasquatch hair and tissue samplesthrough the years, including early DNA testing, has always come backas human. That invariably led to the presumption that the samples hadbeen contaminated by the humans who had gathered them, he said —instead of what he said has been obvious for many years to someresearchers, including himself: That the tests were correct allalong. That Sasquatch is, if not human, at least a distant cousin.
Cantrall saidhe had “a tremendous fear” over what might happen to what hecalled “the Sasquatch population” over the coming months andyears. If the creatures are indeed human, the government will seek toinsure their safety, he said, noting that federal protections for thespotted owl will seem “only miniscule” in comparison.
“Really, theonly protection (Sasquatch individuals) need is protection from beingmurdered,” he said. “Because there’s going to be that factionout there, too.”
Maybe. ASeptember post on a hunting website referencing the two Sasquatch DNAstudies ended with this little note: “PS: What gun do you thinkwould be best for when I get my first Sasquatch tag?” - YakimaHerald
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