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| Dr. Jeff Meldrum standing next to a life-size 3D printed Sasquatch Skeleton |
“All we’re doing is creating a hypothetical facsimile of what [sasquatch] might look like to convey a notion of the dimensions...” --Dr. Jeff Meldrum; Professor of ISU Department of Anthropology
This is exactly what I love about bigfoot. We get to speculate and eventually create tools that allow us to build better models of what bigfoot might be. Paleontologist come to grips that they may never see a dinosaur and it doesn't stop them from trying to get closer to the truth about these prehistoric beast. Don't get me wrong I would love to see a bigfoot, but I'm also at peace, the same way a paleontologist is at peace when they dream about what dinosaurs look like.
Now we have come closer than ever being ever to visualize the skeletal structure of bigfoot, thanks to Dr. Jeff Meldrum and Idaho State University.
So where did Dr. Meldrum start? In the excerpt below jumping off points are discussed and where they needed to make adjustments based on reviewing the Patterson/Gimlin film. Plus, find out how witness reports of a forward hunching posture may be an optical illusion.
The first ancestor of Bigfoot is supposedly a Gigantopithecus, a giant ape that existed in eastern Asia and went extinct two to three hundred thousand years ago. The only remains were discovered in caves across China and Vietnam after being dragged there by porcupines for calcium sustenance. Meldrum’s second hypothesis on Bigfoot’s ancestry is that it is a descendant of an Australopithecus, another extinct species of ape.This last line, regarding how the jaw obscures the neck, rung a bell with me. Dr. Meldrum had discussed this 3D printing project with me over a year ago and mentioned how descriptions of Sasquatch without a neck could have been due to Sasquatch hunching forward. Now, with the skeleton we can see that hunching forward is not required to achieve this same look, it could simply be the jawline obscuring the neck.
However, the creature’s cranial proportions were different from an ape’s and it walked upright. Another philosophy is that a different, unknown species of ape developed upright walking movement and grew larger throughout the years.
Additionally, the infamous idea of a Bigfoot relative is that of the Neanderthal, or cave dweller. Neanderthals are measured to be roughly about 5 feet 4 inches tall, but their brain capacities were larger than modern humans.
“All we’re doing is creating a hypothetical facsimile of what it might look like to convey a notion of the dimensions,” Meldrum said. “First and foremost, it turns out there were other things that we can start to work with on that scale. Instead of starting from scratch we took an existing hominid skeleton, the most complete being a Neanderthal.”
The printing started after Dr. Meldrum agreed to make an appearance on the History Channel, talking about Bigfoot. While studying the Patterson-Gimlin film, researchers took the remains they were permitted to use by the archaeological corporation, Bone Clones, which collects natural history artifacts, and proportioned them to the exact specifications a Sasquatch ought to be.
“They gave us permission to do a 3-D scan on a Neanderthal skeleton they found,” Meldrum said. “We compared that to the Patterson-Gimlin film. We had to widen the shoulders and increase the thickness in the torso. The hips are as wide as the shoulders; the body was built like a tank.”
The model skeleton used in the research was that of a Paranthropus boisei, another type of primate. According to several witnesses of possible Sasquatch sightings, the creature has no neck; this is why researchers analyzed these specific remains.
As it turns out, a Paranthropus boisei has a large jawline and chin, and therefore, covers the neck
Click the following link for Dr. Jeff Meldrum's deeper explanation about sasquatch necks and more photos he provided to Bigfoot Lunch Club.
You can read more about the 3D printing process at http://isubengal.com/sixteen-hundred-hours-of-sasquatch-skeleton/
