Texas A&M University, often referred to as A&M or TAMU, is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas. It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The seventh-largest university in the United States, A&M enrolls over 48,000 students in ten academic colleges. Texas A&M's designation as a land, sea, and space grant institution reflects a broad range of research with ongoing projects funded by agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research. The school ranks in the top 20 American research institutes in terms of funding and has made notable contributions to such fields as animal cloning.
The Battalion on-line is the student voice of Texas A&M. In the opinion section of the web news source Richard Creecy, a senior classics major, stumps for Bigfoot.
He compares Bigfoot to the newly discovered colossal squid. Discusses questions Bigfooters have asked themselves and the risk scientist take when they openly follow Bigfoot evidence.
It is refreshing to see an educational institution, with such a strong science background, contemplate Bigfoot. They are one of the few universities that have land-grant, sea-grant and space-grant designations. Plus any university that has made major contributions to animal cloning just sounds cool! They could be making Cryptids for all we know! Below we have an excerpt from Richard Creecy's article:
One of the first reports from Texas dates back to 1837 in the lower Navidad area, which is northeast of Victoria, Texas. In this encounter a group of men chased down a large furry bipedal creature, but their horses were reported to be so frightened they refused to get close, leading to the creature's escape. The Karankawa America Indian Tribe, which once hailed from the coastal areas of Texas have stories that told of a tribe of hairy creatures that inhabit the woods that are now called the Piney Woods.
But the question still remains, why do so many people disbelieve so adamantly in the possibility of Bigfoot? Among the many arguments, two stand out in frequency. Some people will say that they cannot believe in a creature that has never been conclusively photographed or captured on video. But to answer this challenge, let us look to another elusive creature, the Colossal Squid.
The Colossal Squid was a creature chalked up to superstitious sailors, conjuring stories of a vengeful sea that held vast merciless creatures. Skepticism was rampant until 2007, when a live specimen was inadvertently captured by a New Zealand fishing vessel off the coast of Antarctica. Previous to this encounter the only evidence that existed was a few severely decomposed specimens - tentacles and beaks found mostly in the stomachs of Sperm whales.
"The most common reason given for discrediting the possibility of an undocumented primate in North America is the absence of a body or other compelling forms of physical evidence," said Alton Higgins, assistant professor of biology at Mid-America Christian university and board member at the Texas Bigfoot Research Center, TBRC.
But this argument is truly unfounded, according to Higgins because of the habitat that the Bigfoot species seems to favor. Heavily forested areas, with rainfall and dense vegetation do not preserve remains well, not to mention forest scavengers, insects, bacterial and fungal agents that break down and decompose bodies very quickly.
"In my opinion the best evidence exists in the form of the body of sighting accounts that have accumulated since the early days of European settlement," Higgins said. "These reports correlate closely with the prehistoric oral histories of nearly all American Indian tribes that include clear descriptions of Sasquatch-like creatures."
Higgins, a wildlife biologist, isn't the only scientist convinced of the existence of Bigfoot in North America, but for many scientists the stigma that comes from voicing their beliefs on the subject is not worth the ridicule. But support and evidence for Sasquatch exists, with sightings throughout the country. It not too far-fetched to believe that another ape-like species could exist, and like the Colossal Squid, is only waiting for the day when mankind documents it.
While the article, in itself, is interesting, the real entertainment is the comments section. In the comments section of the article (direct link provided below) A&M students battle it out.
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