Those Who Live in Glass Houses

Any Bf Researcher worth their night vision goggles knows Bigfoot loves to throw stones.

MonsterQuest Sasquatch Attack I and Sasquatch II programs show the involvement of stone-throwing Bigfoot as major components of those documentary treatments.

Loren Coleman Posts on Cryptomundo

The best evidence for understanding BF behavior is through the study of the five great apes that we do have access to; Gorillas, Orangutans, Chimps, Bonobos and Humans.

Many of our old BF assumptions are based on our old primate assumptions. As the primate assumptions get upset we need to also reevaluate our BF assumptions. Who is our primate paradigm provocateur? Satino the Chimp.

Satino, a canny chimpanzee who calmly collected a stash of rocks and then hurled them at zoo visitors in fits of rage has confirmed that apes can plan ahead just like humans, a Swedish study said Monday. Santino's behavior fascinated researchers because it was so carefully prepared. According to a report in the journal Current Biology, the 31-year-old alpha male started building his weapons cache in the morning before the zoo opened, collecting rocks and knocking out disks from concrete boulders inside his enclosure. He waited until around midday before he unleashed a "hailstorm" of rocks against visitors, the study said.

Study: Belligerent chimp proves animals make plans

By MALIN RISING – Mar 9, 2009

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A canny chimpanzee who calmly collected a stash of rocks and then hurled them at zoo visitors in fits of rage has confirmed that apes can plan ahead just like humans, a Swedish study said Monday.

Santino the chimpanzee's anti-social behavior stunned both visitors and keepers at the Furuvik Zoo but fascinated researchers because it was so carefully prepared.

According to a report in the journal Current Biology, the 31-year-old alpha male started building his weapons cache in the morning before the zoo opened, collecting rocks and knocking out disks from concrete boulders inside his enclosure. He waited until around midday before he unleashed a "hailstorm" of rocks against visitors, the study said.

"These observations convincingly show that our fellow apes do consider the future in a very complex way," said the author of the report, Lund University Ph.D. student Mathias Osvath. "It implies that they have a highly developed consciousness, including lifelike mental simulations of potential events."

Osvath's findings were based on his own observations of Santino and interviews with three senior caretakers who had followed the chimpanzee's behavior for 10 years at the zoo in Furuvik, about 93 miles (150 kilometers) north of Stockholm.

Seemingly at ease with his position as leader of the group, Santino didn't attack the other chimpanzees, Osvath told The Associated Press. The attacks were only directed at humans viewing the apes across the moat surrounding the island compound where they were held.

However, he rarely hit visitors because of his poor aim, and no one was seriously injured in the cases when he did, Osvath said.

The observations confirmed the result of a staged laboratory experiment reported in 2006 by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. In that case orangutans and bonobos were able to figure out which tool would work in an effort to retrieve grapes, and were able to remember to bring that tool along hours later.

"Every time you can combine experimental and observational data and you get a consistent result, that is very powerful," said an author of the 2006 study, Joseph Call. "This is an important observation."

He noted that individual differences are big among chimpanzees so the observation might not mean all chimpanzees are capable of the same planning.

"It could be that he is a genius, only more research will tell. On the other hand our research showed the same in orangutans and bonobos so he is not alone," Call said.

Osvath said the chimpanzee had also been observed tapping on concrete boulders in the park to identify weak parts and then knocking out a piece. If it was too big for throwing, he broke it into smaller pieces, before adding them to his arsenal.

"It is very special that he first realizes that he can make these and then plans on how to use them," Osvath said. "This is more complex than what has been showed before."

The fact that the ape stayed calm while preparing his weapons but used them when he was extremely agitated proves that the planning behavior was not based on an immediate emotional drive, Osvath said.

For a while, zoo keepers tried locking Santino up in the morning so he couldn't collect ammunition for his assaults, but he remained aggressive. They ultimately decided to castrate him in the autumn last year, but will have to wait until the summer to see if that helps. The chimpanzees are only kept outdoors between April and October and Santino's special behavior usually occurs in June and July.

"It is normal behavior for alpha males to want to influence their surroundings ... It is extremely frustrating for him that there are people out of his reach who are pointing at him and laughing," Osvath said. "It cannot be good to be so furious all the time."

In the U.S. state of Connecticut last month, a 200 pound (90 kilogram) pet chimpanzee once seen in TV commercials mauled a woman trying to help its owner lure it inside and cornered a police officer in his cruiser before he shot and killed it, authorities said

The owner has speculated that the chimp was trying to protect her and attacked the woman because she had changed her hairstyle, was driving a different car and was holding a stuffed toy in front of her face to get the chimp's attention.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Merry Xmas Epic!

Man! The book to the left is indeed my favorite present this year. Which brings me to one of the things I forgot to mention in the previous post. This past year we had the honor of having the Loren Coleman leave a comment on our site...

Mr.Coleman's comment is reprinted below.

Welcome to the wonderful, crazy world of blogging.

At Cryptomundo, we deal in an extremely high volume of new reports and postings, so to say you *scooped* us is fine with us. We need not mention the scores of stories we paid attention to while you highlighted Cameron Gainer's newest appearance.

But let me mention that, yes, Cryptomundo's first posting about Cameron Gainer's art was on September 14, 2006, with a followup on October 22, 2006, and an added update on October 20, 2007.

I guess I could post on Cryptomundo, in response to this posting that we scooped you on posts about Gainer's art by almost 17 months, but I won't. LOL.

Keep up the good work.

Well thank you again sir I hope we still do you proud. Please folks if you get a chance please donate to the International Cryptozoology Museum as we have asked you to do in the past.

Oh and if you do not know who Loren Coleman is you can visit is fabulous sight Cryptomundo or check out his Bio at Wikipedia

As always Mr.Coleman any progress made in crytozoology is only due to our ability to stand on the shoulders of your achievments. BfRLC salutes you!

One Year Later

After 109 posts, over 3 million visitors, and 26 lunches we have achieved the high mark of our first anniversary.

Yes lunch clubbers when we reflect on the last year let me share some of the highlights. As we all know the biggest news was the Georgia hoax.

Before we go to the chart below I would like to present a link to our first post Since then we have come quite a ways. Although we endured the peak of August 15th -- the official press release of the Georgian Hoax. We scooped most media by posting the news July 30th.

As you can see though, news traveled slow for the rest of the world, bigfoot related searches and news media mentions waited a full 15 days. As illustrated below and at the google trends website.




Proud to be the first stop for all Bigfoot related news, we at the Bigfoot Research Lunch Club will continue to work even harder next year. Happy holidays. Happy Anniversary Bigfoot Lunch Clubbers! Many thanks to all who have made this a truly successful year!

Is global warming forcing Bigfoot to move north?

On Scientific American's Website in a segment called "60-Second Science, got a minute?" Ivan Oransky writes about a science called phylogeography: The biogeographic shifts, speciation, extinction and determinants of community assembly. Its a wonderful article with great Bigfoot links...
If you were a nine-foot tall animal covered in dense fur – say, Bigfoot – you would probably seek cooler climes if temps began inching up. That’s the hypothesis one Queens College biologist posed to me last night – without, I should note, acknowledging that such an animal exists at all.

First, a bit of background on why I would have found myself in a bar in Manhattan’s Alphabet City talking about Sasquatch. The biologist in question – Mike Hickerson, who studies “biogeographic shifts, speciation, extinction and determinants of community assembly,” a.k.a. phylogeography – and I had just been to Bigfoot Night. Bigfoot Night, if you don't know, was the latest installment of Kevin Maher’s Sci Fi Screening Room. (In the interests of full disclosure, Bigfoot Night’s co-host was M. Sweeney Lawless, a friend.)

Bigfoot Night was not quite a scientific conference, but it was entertaining nonetheless. We were treated to a number of videos: A 1984 CNN segment on a town in Washington State that became alarmed after a group of Vietnam vets there decided to hunt Bigfoot in the woods. (There was potential risk to “nocturnal agricultural pursuits” and “nocturnal distillation.”) An episode of TV's The Six Million Dollar Man in which bionic hero Steve Austin fought Bigfoot. (Spoiler alert: Austin ripped Sasquatch’s arm off.) An episode of Bigfoot and Wildboy. (Watch the intro here.)

Performers also read dozens of Bigfoot "eyewitness" accounts, many of which ended with some version of “This was not a bear.” And we were treated to a truly awful movie called Skunk Ape?! featuring a punk band whose leader was hell-bent on killing a Florida swamp creature in Chicago using a harpoon. (No Bigfoot porn, much to the chagrin of some audience members.)

But I digress. The night’s science quotient went up later, when several of us from the audience went out for drinks. There, Hickerson told me about his research into what’s called environmental niche modeling. The basic idea is that you correlate sightings of any organism, or evidence of that organism, with geographical and climate data, to try to figure out where you might find other such organisms.

That’s the idea behind this study of species shifting across Yosemite, led by Hickerson’s postdoctoral advisor, Craig Moritz. You can see how such work would be useful not only in trying to forecast where animals and plants might move, but also in predicting places we might find endangered species where we previously have not. Combine that with new tools like Google Earth, and it’s understandable why the field has taken off.

Hickerson told me that evolutionary meetings now feature hundreds of papers on the subject, compared to practically none just two or three years ago. He uses it to study a number of plants and animals, in particular those such as seaweed and barnacles that live in rocky intertidal regions.

But such modeling could also be used to study Bigfoot. So as a joke, Hickerson, who spent about eight years in Washington State working in forests (where, he says, he heard “some weird stuff” at night), and his colleagues are taking all of the Bigfoot footprint and sighting data to try to figure out where the creatures might be found. That is, if they exist, which Hickerson says is an incredibly big if. (Note to believers: He’s a open-minded skeptic, not one of you.)

Tongue planted firmly in cheek, he then told me that they still need more data, particularly from Canada, but his preliminary read is that there have been more sightings in northern parts of Sasquatch habitat lately.

“Maybe Sasquatch is moving up north,” Hickerson suggested sarcasticaly.

Watch out, Canada.

Photo of Dan Raspler in a Bigfoot costume – or not? -- courtesy Marian Brock
Read Original Article

Reality Films Releases Wildman of Kentucky DVD

Title: The Wildman of Kentucky, the Mystery of Panther Rock
Genre: Bigfoot, Supernatural, History
Buy At Amazon
Buy At Reality Store


The Wildman of Kentucky, the Mystery of Panther Rock

There is probably no other unknown creature that arouses more curiosity than the Bigfoot or Sasquatch. Yes, there is the Loch Ness Monster, the Chupacabra and other great beasts of Lore but the Bigfoot remains the most compelling as it pulls us towards ourselves…shadowing the unknown X factor of our very origins. The case files contain thousands of reported sightings, yet no actual specimen has ever been found. Hundreds of photographs exist, but the creature has not been identified. Still, the clues accumulate year after year. In the words of one Bigfoot investigator, “It is an extremely complex phenomenon with no starting point and few geographical limits.” If this creature does exist then it most certainly must be a relative of man.

Species? Unknown at this time

In the heart of Kentucky there is an ancient and sacred ground known as Panther Rock. For many years tales of strange events have been reported but never investigated in full. Now, for the first time an intrepid group of explorers ventures into the unknown to discover the truth. Join the Reality Team of Special Investigators as they uncover new Bigfoot witnesses and historical tales. Journey with them into the dark woods of the Frazier Land and witness amazing paranormal and often terrifying events.

Computer Generated Recreations – Music by Freakhouse and other Reality Artists- Exclusive Footage and Expert Witnesses – New Interpretations of Strange Phenomena Footage of the Unknown in Anderson, County KY

The Wildman of Kentucky, the Mystery of Panther Rock

120 minutes, 24.95 USD RYE 1036

Japan Yeti Hunters Hope 3rd Time's a Charm

By Gopal Sharma
Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:51pm IST

KATHMANDU (Reuters Life!) - It seems the search for mythical creatures goes on.

Less than a week after two men in the United States claimed they had found the remains of a half-man, half-ape Bigfoot, which actually turned out to be a rubber gorilla suit, a team of Japanese climbers began trekking on Wednesday to a mountain in Nepal hoping to find the Yeti, or abominable snowman.

Seven climbers, supported by sherpas and carrying cameras and telescopes, will spend 50 days on the lower reaches of the 7,661-metre (25,134-ft) Dhaulagiri IV to try and collect evidence of the beast's existence, team leader Yoshiteru Takahashi said.

Takahashi, who carried out similar missions in the same area in 1994 and 2003, told Reuters that one of his team members and three sherpas had seen "something like the Yeti" from a distance five years ago.

"We believe that was the Yeti," said Takahashi, a 65-year-old employee of a Tokyo furniture company. "So we are going to search for a third time. We need photographs and video tapes to prove it. It is very important."

Sherpas and climbers often narrate stories about a wild hairy creature roaming the Himalayas. Those tales have captured the imagination of foreign climbers of Mount Everest since the 1920s prompting many, including Everest hero Sir Edmund Hillary, to carry out hunts for the Yeti.

Some climbers even claim to have found Yeti footprints, but no one has yet actually seen it or produced irrefutable proof.

The Japanese will pitch three camps, manned by two researchers each, between 3,400 meters (11,154 feet) and 4,300 meters (14,100 feet) above base camp.

They will use binoculars during the day and also have long-lens cameras to take pictures at night.

"I want to shake hands if I meet him," said T. Onishi, another member of the team. "But it is very difficult. They are shy, so we want to just take pictures."

(Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Miral Fahmy)

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Read Original Article Here

Darn Good Bigfoot Research

hey BfRL Clubber's theres some darn good research goin' on at http://sopebocks.blogspot.com/ they go into far greater detail into the georgian gorilla. Too much to repost here. From all of us at the Bigfoot Researcher's Lunch Club We salute you Charlie and keep up the good work!

'There's something out there,' Sasquatch expert tells Edmonton

Bill Mah , Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, August 17, 2008
EDMONTON - When news broke Friday that two self-proclaimed sasquatch trackers in the state of Georgia claimed to have one of the fabled ape creatures in their freezer, Jeff Meldrum was quickly pulled into the story. After all, he's one of the few PhDs conducting field work on Bigfoot and reporters were quick to search him out for comment.

He was unimpressed about photos posted by the Georgians on the Internet.

And on Sunday, speaking in Edmonton Sunday at the Royal Alberta Museum on his research into Bigfoot that started when he discovered an unexplained set of tracks in the mountains of Washington state, he hadn't changed his mind.


Rick Dyer, 31, holds a picture he claims is the mouth of Bigfoot in Palo Alto, California, August 15, 2008. Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is a mythical ape-like creature said to live in forests of the Pacific northwest region of the United States.
Reuters

"It was not compelling in the least," said Meldrum, an associate professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University and an affiliate curator at the Idaho Museum of Natural History.

"It didn't have the bulk or the mass. It seemed to be vacuous, the hair did not look natural and the face bears a striking resemblance to an off-the-shelf costume."

Still, he's quick to point out the real creature could very well be out there in the woods somewhere. There's just too much evidence to ignore.

Meldrum, author of Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, said such likely hoaxes as the one in Georgia are damaging to the few scientists researching the field.

"People who are not well-informed on this subject matter then use this incident as a litmus test of the veracity of the entire subject."

His talk was part of the museum's lecture series entitled Here Be Dragons . . . and Other Creatures.

He said such evidence as many footprints and digitally enhanced versions of the grainy Patterson film shot in 1967 of a female Sasquatch show anatomical details that are difficult to fake.

"The amassed evidence of the footprints is strong evidence that there is a real animal that exhibits a consistent anatomy that is distinct from human anatomy and yet shows adaptations that are very elegantly suited to the habitat where they are reported to exist," Meldrum elaborated after his presentation.

Meldrum said he hasn't encountered face-to-face a sasquatch himself, but has seen fresh footprints on several occasions and had brushes where something has come into his camp and rifled through his backpacks, opening clasped flaps without tearing them. He's also had stones thrown at him in isolated woods.

"I'm not here to convince you that sasquatch exists," he told the audience.

"I was hoping to convey to you that there is a body of data that is extremely compelling," said Meldrum.

"I am convinced there is something out there. Something is leaving footprints. There's something out there that begs for our consideration."




© Edmonton Journal 2008

"Bigfoot" fails DNA test

Reuters
Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:48pm EDT

Results from tests on genetic material from alleged remains of one of the mythical half-ape and half-human creatures, made public at a news conference on Friday held after the claimed discovery swept the Internet, failed to prove its existence.

Its spread was fueled by a photograph of a hairy heap, bearing a close resemblance to a shaggy full-body gorilla costume, stuffed into a container resembling a refrigerator.

One of the two samples of DNA said to prove the existence of the Bigfoot came from a human and the other was 96 percent from an opossum, according to Curt Nelson, a scientist at the University of Minnesota who performed the DNA analysis.

Bigfoot creatures are said to live in the forests of the U.S. Pacific Northwest. An opossum is a marsupial about the size of a house cat.

Results of the DNA tests were revealed in an e-mail from Nelson and distributed at the Palo Alto, California, news conference held by Tom Biscardi, host of a weekly online radio show about the Bigfoot.

Also present were Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, the two who say they discovered the Bigfoot corpse while hiking in the woods of northern Georgia. They also are co-owners of a company that offers Bigfoot merchandise.

Despite the dubious photo and the commercial interests of the alleged discoverers, the Bigfoot claim drew interest from Australia to Europe and even The New York Times.

Biscardi said the DNA samples may not have been taken correctly and may have been contaminated, and that he would proceed with an autopsy of the alleged Bigfoot remains, currently in a freezer at an undisclosed location.

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin in Palo Alto; writing by Jim Christie; editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Henderson)

CNN Coverage of Bf Press Conference

www.cnn.com is now playing the conference with the searchers from Georgia. The BfRLC will take in the press conference and have a posting sometime soon. This could be it folks....

We Got Their Attention. Now What?

Okay Folks. All you Bf hunters, enthusiasts and lunch clubbers, let's not let this new found attention go to waste. We really need to get the message across that Cryptozoology is research is founded on anthropology, biology, zoology. Refer to the Gigantopithicas theory posited by Grover Krantz of Washington State University. You could discuss how the research and debate is very active. Reference Loren Coleman's alternative theory proposing that Bigfoot lineage may have departed futher back than Giganto.

Discuss how the Giant Panda and the Low land Gorilla was only discovered within the last century 8000 of them just this last year. Real or Hoax, the Georgian Gorilla has afforded us, all of us a tremendous opportunity to share the our determined community tied together by a single curiosity in pursuit of an elusive creature mention in myth and famed by film.

You can stereotype conspiracy theorist, ghost chasers, and ufologist, but Bigfoot researchers are as diverse a group as this great country we all live in. I'm sure if we started to talk about politics or religeon we may discover how different we are, but we dont, we support each other, encourage each other and focus on what we have in common. So if the Media comes knocking on your door asking you about this corpse in Georgia, tell 'em about what Bigfoot research is all about. The pursuit of discovery.

Captured Bf Body Pics Analyzed

Here at BfRLC Labs we have taken the photo of the captured Georgia Gorilla, varied the midtones, shifted the contrast, and even reduce the noise to see if we could somehow gain more detail from the photo of the alleged Bigfoot corpse.

This is the most we could get out of the head and face. There does not seem to be much skull or teeth support under the skin. The face almost flattens sideways. However we were able to reveal the texture of the eyesockets and actually get more definition to the snout.

For reference you can see the two areas of interest where we decided to focus on, hoping to reveal any tell-tell clues.

Not as clean as we had hoped but a close up of the entrails does suggest they may have originated from a smaller animal. Even if we are seeing a partial intestine, the sudden tapering at any end can help estimate the length and size of an intestine. this one seems to taper too suddenly for a 500 pound animal.

Over all the jury at BfRLC is still out. We are anxious to hear what will be revealed Friday. As the first website to post the captured bigfoot last month we will contiue to keep you up to date with the latest and most up to date Bigfoot news anywhere.

BfRLC Scoops all Media

With all hoopla about the Georgia Gorilla, all of us here wanted to remind our constant readers that you heard it here first -- way back on July 27th. The post was entitled "Bigfoot Capture?" Ironically enough it had a picture of a guy in a gorilla suit. And as Co-Founder of the BfRLC, I just want to thank my great team for finding this story almost a month before the rest of the internet did. BfRLC team I salute you!

Official Georgia Gorilla Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12, 2008
BIGFOOT BODY FOUND
DNA evidence and photo evidence to be presented at a
PRESS CONFERENCE
to be held on
Date: Friday, August 15, 2008
Time: From 12Noon-1:00pm
Place: Cabana Hotel-Palo Alto (A Crown Plaza Resort) 4290 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, California 94306

Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. Menlo Park, California
Tom Biscardi, CEO

BIGFOOT BODY FOUND - EVIDENCE AND DNA DETAILS TO BE PRESENTED AT A PRESS CONFERENCE ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 15th

FROM 12 N00N TO 1:00PM AT THE CABANA HOTEL-PALO ALTO IN PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

A body that may very well be the body of the creature commonly known as “Bigfoot” has been found in the woods in northern Georgia.

DNA evidence and photo evidence of the creature will be presented in a press conference on Friday, August 15th from 12 Noon to 1:00pm at the Cabana Hotel-Palo Alto at 4290 El Camino Real in Palo Alto, California, 94306. The press conference will not be open to the public. It will only be open to credentialed members of the press.
Here are some of the vital statistics on the “Bigfoot” body:
*The creature is seven feet seven inches tall.
*It weighs over five hundred pounds.
*The creature looks like it is part human and part ape-like.
*It is male.
*It has reddish hair and blackish-grey eyes.
*It has two arms and two legs, and five fingers on each hand and
five toes on each foot.
*The feet are flat and similar to human feet.
*Its footprint is sixteen and three-quarters inches long and five and three-quarters inches wide at the heel.
*From the palm of the hand to the tip of the middle finger, its hands are
eleven and three-quarters inches long and six and one-quarter inches wide.
*The creatures walk upright. (Several of them were sighted on the same day that the body was found.)
*The teeth are more human-like than ape-like.
*DNA tests are currently being done and the current DNA and photo evidence will be presented at the press conference on Friday, August 15th.

The creature was found by Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer (residents of Georgia) in the woods in northern Georgia. (The exact location is being kept secret to protect the creatures.)
Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer will be flying in from Georgia to be at the press conference. Also present at the press conference will be Tom Biscardi, CEO of Searching for Bigfoot, Inc.
Whitton is a Clayton County, Georgia, police officer, who is currently on administrative leave after being wounded in the course of duty pursuing an alleged felon. Dyer is a former correctional officer. Whitton and Dyer are co-owners of bigfoottracker.com and Bigfoot Global LLC., a company that offers Bigfoot expeditions. Whitton and Dyer are working with Bigfoot hunter, Tom Biscardi, and Biscardi’s Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., to present and conduct the scientific study of the evidence and information on this body.
A few weeks ago, Whitton and Dyer announced the finding of the body on the “Squatch Detective” radio show, an internet based radio show hosted by Steve Kulls. While on that show, the commentator asked Rick Dyer “Would you allow one of our people to come down and verify the body?” Dyer replied, “The only person we would allow to come down and verify the body was ‘the real Bigfoot Hunter,’ Tom Biscardi.” The next day, the producer of the Squatch Detective show contacted Biscardi with pertinent information on how to contact Dyer and Whitton.
Extensive scientific studies will be done on the body by a team of scientists including a molecular biologist, an anthropologist, a paleontologist and other scientists over the next few months at an undisclosed location. The studies will be carefully documented and the findings will be released to the world, according to Biscardi.
Biscardi is known as “the real Bigfoot Hunter” because of his extensive investigations out in the field. He has been searching for Bigfoot since 1971 and over the past several years, he has been criss-crossing the United States and Canada tracking down the hottest leads on Bigfoot sightings.
Videography on the studies will be done under the supervision of Scott Davis, an independent producer and owner of TV Biz Productions in Phoenix, Arizona.
Currently, Tom Biscardi and his Searching for Bigfoot Team, in conjunction with Bigfoot Global LLC., are preparing to capture another of these creatures alive. That expedition will start very soon. The dates and the locations are being kept confidential.
The body that is currently being studied is being referred to as the “RICKMAT” creature, a name derived from the names of Rick Dyer and Matthew Whitton. [Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman recommends the term “Georgia Gorilla” be used to remove any taint of ego from the discovery, and so the general public, media, and science will have a comfortable moniker until a formal zoological name may be bestowed.]
Last year, a film that Biscardi produced about his investigations, called “Bigfoot Lives,” won first place in the Documentary category at the Pocono Mountains Film Festival. Biscardi also hosts a Bigfoot oriented internet radio show that can be heard on Wednesday nights from 7:00pm to 8:00pm PDT at www.bigfootliveradioshow.com. The show is heard in over thirty countries.
Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. has exclusive rights to all publishing rights, photo rights, television and film rights, production and distribution rights and other commercial opportunities related to the discovery and findings regarding this body and these creatures.
Interested parties may contact Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., in writing, at their mailing address, 1134 Crane St., Suite 216, Menlo Park, California 94025.

Update - Dead Bigfoot Pictures Now Online, Press Conference Scheduled

In the most exciting Bigfoot news to come along in a while, photos of the recently found dead Bigfoot creature have been posted online and a press conference to go over DNA and photo evidence are scheduled for this Friday, August 15th. Check out the link http://www.inquisitr.com/2357/has-bigfoot-been-found/ which shows the photos and the time and other pertinent info regarding the press conference. The photos have a rather tall, hairy creature in what looks to be some sort of freezer. Again, the BfRLC will monitor this event and report as we know more info. Keep on checking in...and make sure to follow our news ticker as it will have up to the minute news regarding this hot story.

Bf Corpse Discovered in Georgia

Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, Georgia residents who lead Bigfoot-tracking expeditions, say they found the body of what appears to be a Bigfoot in the woods of northern Georgia and will join local Bigfoot researcher Tom Biscardi at a news conference, according to Robert Barrows, who is publicizing the event.
Among the creatures's other physical characteristics of the body -- according to the hunters website -- http://www.searchingforbigfoot.com/ -- were flat feet similar to human feet. Its footprint is 16 ¾ inches long and the length from palm to tip of the middle finger is 11 ½ inches long.
"I think you'll find that this is the real deal," Barrows said of the alleged discovery.
The Bigfoot Researchers Lunch Club will be keeping close tabs on this story as it develops. As of yet, no body has been produced, nor has the group let the public know where the body is being kept. This could very well be it! Stay tuned to the BfRLC for up to the minute information.

Bigfoot Researchers Unite for Rick Emerson Address today 8/8/8 at 2 pm

Greetings fellow Bf Researchers,

Please be aware that today, 888 at 2 pm, Rick Emerson will be adressing the masses. If possible, tune in to am970, online at www.970.am for this historic moment. Although the BFRLC does not generally promote non-Bf related items, we find Rick's address to be something that will benefit people everywhere. Thanks for tuning in!

Neandertal DNA Deciphered

By Tina Hesman SaeyWeb edition : Thursday, August 7th, 2008

Results show modern humans, Neandertals diverged 660,000 years ago

Now there’s even more scientific proof that you are not a Neandertal, no matter what anyone says.

An international consortium of researchers reports in the Aug. 8 Cell that for the first time the complete sequence of mitochondrial DNA from a Neandertal has been deciphered. Comparison of the Neandertal sequence with mitochondrial sequences from modern humans confirms that the two groups belong to different branches of humankind’s family tree, diverging 660,000 years ago.

That date is not statistically different from previous estimates of the split between humans and Neandertals, says Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis. The sequence also doesn’t reveal what happened to drive Neandertals to extinction, but it does clear up some discrepancies in earlier studies.

“It’s a major tidying-up of a lot of loose ends,” Trinkaus says.

At 16,565 bases long, the new sequence is the largest stretch of Neandertal DNA ever examined. The DNA was isolated from a 38,000-year-old bone found in a cave in Croatia.

“It’s a nice accomplishment and the next important step toward completing the Neandertal genome,” says Stephan Schuster of Pennsylvania State University in University Park. Schuster is part of a group that is sequencing the genomes of the mammoth and other extinct animals, but was not involved in the current study. “It’s a nice landmark on the way to saying what makes modern humans so s

pecial.”

In order to know exactly how modern humans and Neandertals differ, scientists will need to examine DNA from the Neandertal’s entire genome. The sequence reported in the new study was generated as part of a project to decode Neandertal DNA, but it contains information only about DNA from mitochondria.

Mitochondria are organelles that generate energy for a cell. Inside each mitochondrion is a circular piece of DNA that contains genes encoding some of the key proteins responsible for power generation. Mitochondria are passed down from mothers to their children. Scientists use variations in mitochondrial DNA as a molecular clock to tell how fast species are evolving.

Scientists have previously examined a short piece of Neandertal mitochondrial DNA known as the hypervariable region, but this new complete sequence helps clear up some ambiguities from studies comparing Neandertals and humans, says John Hawks, a biological anthropologist from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Some modern humans have several changes in the hypervariable region that made it seem as if Neandertals are more closely related to modern humans than humans are to each other.

“Comparing the complete mitochondrial DNA genomes of a Neandertal and many recent humans presents a very different picture,” Hawks says. “Humans are all more similar to each other, than any human is to a Neandertal. And in fact the Neandertal sequence is three or more times as different, on average, from us as we are from each other. This change from the earlier picture is a purely statistical one, but it makes a clearer picture.”

Human and Neandertal mitochondrial DNAs differ at 206 positions out of the 16,565 examined, while modern humans differ at only about 100 positions when compared with each other.

The mitochondrial genome contains 13 genes, blueprints for stringing amino acids together to make proteins. The researchers examined the nature of changes within those genes to learn how proteins evolve. Generally, changes that alter the amino acid sequence of a protein are bad because they disrupt the way a protein works or interacts with other proteins, says Richard Green, a computational biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Neandertals have more amino-acid altering changes in their mitochondrial genes than do other primates, Green and his colleagues found.

“This really demands an explanation,” Green says. One scenario that could explain the finding is that Neandertals had very small effective populations long before they went extinct.

But humans also have changes in some of their mitochondrial genes. One gene, called COX2, had four changes specific to humans. Neandertals, chimpanzees and other primates don’t have those changes. “This tells us these changes happened very recently and perhaps conferred some selective advantage” for humans, Green says. The data reinforce the notion that humans are evolving faster than other primates and “it gets us closer to understanding what it means to be a fully modern human.”

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org

Bigfoot group has busy agenda

What is it with Big foot Groups and their four-letter acronyms and why are they so busy? That was my best Andy Rooney impression. But really theres the Bigfoot Research Organization (BFRO), Michigan Bigfoot Information Center (MBIC), Sasquatch Bigfoot Research Unit (SBRU), Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers (AIBR), Ohio Bigfoot Research Team (OBRT), Texas Bigfoot Research Center (TBRC)...the list goes on and on. And now Elusive Primates of North America (EPNA).

We at the BfRLC have dared enough to add a fifth letter to our
acronym but that's the kind of mavericks we are -- and promise to
always be.

Meanwhile read how busy EPNA are in this article from The Sand Mountain Reporter



By Lionel GreenThe Reporter
Published August 5, 2008


An area Bigfoot research group is busy this summer with planned expeditions near Douglas and Guntersville.


“We just had a report in Cleveland; the police department was chasing a large hairy man off (Alabama) Highway 160,” said Hawk Spearman, a founder of the Alabama chapter of the Elusive Primates of North America. “I’m trying to get in touch with the police officers to get more details from them.”


EPNA meets again Aug. 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Oneonta Public Library.


If you add to all the activity a widely circulated story of two men in Georgia who say they have a Bigfoot corpse in their possession, Spearman will have plenty to discuss at the meeting.


“The biggest thing we’re going to be talking about is the supposed Bigfoot find and how it’s going to impact the Bigfoot community,” said Spearman, who heads EPNA in Alabama with his wife, Karen.


The discovery allegedly involves a law enforcement officer and an associate claiming to have found the dead body of a Bigfoot while on an expedition in the mountains of north Georgia. The men are releasing very little information but say they are preserving the large body in a freezer and will reveal the corpse Sept. 1. They insist it’s not a hoax, but many are skeptical because of their lack of professionalism in videos on YouTube.


Spearman is hopeful but wary of the purported discovery.


“I’m in between,” he said. “I believe it’s possible it could happen. If this is a prank, it will be the biggest hoax ever, and the ones that actually believed, it’s going to make them look really, really bad.”


In the meantime, EPNA is planning three expeditions in the next couple of months, including two in Marshall County. The first is an overnight trip in Ashville at the end of this month followed by a search in Horton near Douglas off Alabama 75 in mid-September.


At the end of September or first of October, EPNA is looking at an overnight excursion in the forests surrounding Lake Guntersville.


Spearman said the expeditions are free, but participants will have to pay for their campsites on the overnight trips.


“Anybody’s welcome,” Spearman said. “They’ll need a flashlight and plaster of Paris just in case footprints are found. We believe if you find the evidence, it’s yours.” No firearms or alcohol is allowed on the expeditions. For more information about the Alabama chapter of EPNA, call 205-589-4622 or 205-359-0130 or visit www.epna.webs.com on the Internet.

Copyright © 2008 Sand Mountain Reporter

'Yeti hair' sent to lab for DNA tests

From correspondents in London

A BRITISH scientist is anxiously awaiting the results of DNA tests on hair claimed to be from a yeti after initial examinations showed it had human and ape-like characteristics.

Ian Redmond, a biologist and expert in ape conservation, said the hairs found in the Indian jungle resembled samples collected by the conqueror of Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary, in the 1950s.

"Under the microscope, they look slightly human, slightly like an orang-utan and slightly like the hairs brought back by Edmund Hillary," Dr Redmond said.

"These hairs remain an enigma. They could be a new species, but the DNA tests will hopefully tell us more."

The hairs were brought back from India this year by BBC journalist Alastair Lawson, who contacted Dr Redmond and was put in touch with a team at Oxford Brookes University in south central England.

Lawson was given the hairs by yeti believer Dipu Marak, who retrieved them them in dense jungle in the Meghalaya state of India after a forester allegedly spotted the creature on three consecutive days in 2003.

Mr Marak believes the hairs come from an ape-like Indian version of the fabled yeti, or abominable snowman, called mande barung, which he believes stands about 3m tall.

Dr Redmond and scientists from Oxford Brookes examined the hairs last Thursday under powerful microscopes, comparing them with samples taken from an Asiatic black bear, yaks, orang utangs and gorillas at Oxford's Natural History Museum and even a hair from Dr Redmond's beard.

"The hairs are complete with the cuticle, and between 3.3cm and 4.4cm long and thick and wiry and curved," Dr Redmond said.

"At one point we thought they looked like they came from a wild boar. That was quite a tense moment, but when we got a sample from the museum it turned out they were quite different."

Dr Redmond also contacted the English laboratory that analysed the hairs brought back by Hillary in the 1950s from his Everest expedition and found they were similar in appearance.

While the microscope tests were inconclusive, the hairs are now undergoing DNA tests in separate laboratories in Oxford and Cardiff.

Dr Redmond admitted his excitement at a potential scientific breakthrough was tinged with fear.

"My concern is that if we do find something unusual, it will be from a very small population of animals and I would want to talk to the State Government and Indian Government so they are not inundated with people trying to catch one for a museum.

"I want us to approach this in a 21st century and not a 19th century way."


Reprinted from the Sun