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| Cover art for Discovery Channel documentary and companion book |
2003. It was a Thursday night exactly ten years ago today when a documentary film, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, aired on the Discovery Channel. The program featured scientists from various disciplines analyzing the most compelling evidence. Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science was produced by Doug Hajicek with White Wolf Entertainment, the same people who brought us Monster Quest. It is narrated by the distinctive voice of Stacy Keach.
The documentary can be defined by the analyses of three pieces of Sasquatch footage and 17 categories of evidence.
The three pieces of footage were the Patterson/Gimlin film, the Freeman footage and the Memorial Day footage. The 17 different categories of evidence included: fossil evidence, new species discoveries, dermal ridges, the Sasquatch body, images, step frequency, biomechanics, forensic measurements, Patterson-Gimlin film, behavior parallels, vocalizations, visual misidentification, track morphology, kinesiology, soft tissue pathology, statistics, and DNA.
Also included in the documentary were six experts, described by the official webpage below:
In the documentary, scientists from various disciplines put the most compelling sasquatch evidence to the test. Collectively their conclusions are ground-breaking. There is now scientific proof for the existence of a giant primate species in North America -- a species fitting the descriptions of sasquatches (bigfoots).Anthropologist Dr. Jeff Meldrum also wrote a companion book with the same title, "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science."
The nation's top primate anatomist, Dr. Daris Swindler of Washington State Univeristy examines the Skookum Cast, along with prominent primatologist Dr. Esteban Sarmiento of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and anthropologist Dr. Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University, give their conclusions about the Skookum cast, and what it points to.
The nation's top bioacoustics analyst, Dr. Robert Benson at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, analyzes sound recordings of purported Sasquatch vocalizations with an advanced computerized system in his laboratory. He explains his conclusions about the recordings.
Primate fingerprint expert, Officer Jimmy Chilcutt, discusses the consistent and distinct dermal ridge patterns found in track casts from the northwest and southeastern United States. He states his conclusions about the level of proof provided the dermal ridge casts evidence.
DNA expert Dr. Craig Newton from BC Research in Canada attempts to extract DNA from hair samples and saliva taken from the Skookum Cast site. He explains the potential and problems with DNA analysis.
Dr. Russel Ciochon shows life-size models of Gigantopithecus, and describes their interactions with early man. Various other scientists fill in other parts of the puzzle.
According to Wikipedia, the DVD version is slightly different from the broadcast including extra footage.
- The full length of the Patterson footage in digital format, allowing you to zoom in on individual frames with unprecendented clarity
- More of the Freeman footage
- More of the Memorial Day footage
- An FAQ on the Sasquatch mystery
- A gallery of images related to Sasquatch evidence and research
