Bigfoot DNA Update!! Igor Burtsev releases info, Ketchum Responds and Paulides Piles On!

Bryan Sykes and Melba Ketchum

Thanks to Jefferey Kelly for passing this on to us.

Here is a quick update in the world of Bigfoot DNA research. Initially Dr. Melba Ketchum, an animal DNA expert, was working on sequencing the Bigfoot DNA. Many people in the Bigfoot community offered possible DNA samples and others offered to help analyze the results. Since then, there has been a parallel Bigfoot DNA project lead by Bryan Sykes of Oxford University. Igor Burtsev, Head of International Center of Hominology, was close to the initial Dr. Melba Ketchum project and released the following:

URGENT announcement from Igor Burtsev ...
"International Center of Hominology (Russia)
Urgent!

The DNA analysis of the Bigfoot/Sasquatch specimen conducted by Dr. Melba Ketchum the head of DNA Diagnostics, Timpson, TX, USA has been over!

Team of American scientists led by Dr. Melba Ketchum for five years has analyzed 109 purported samples of such creatures. The study has sequenced DNA of a novel North American hominin, commonly called Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

There were a large number of laboratories associated with this study including academic, private and government laboratories in which blind testing was utilized to avoid prejudice in testing. Great time and care was taken in the forensic laboratories to assure no contamination occurred with any of the samples utilized in this study.

After 5 years of this study the scientists can finally answer the question of what sasquatch really is. It is human like us only different, a hybrid of a human with unknown species. Early field research shows that the Bigfoot/Sasquatches are massively intelligent which has enabled them to avoid detection to a large extent. They are different than us, however human nonetheless.

The hybridization event could not have occurred more than 15000 years ago according to the mitochondrial data in some samples. Origin of this hominin was probably Middle Eastern/Eastern Europe and Europe originally though other geographic areas are not excluded.

The manuscript associated with this study has been submitted to a scientific reviewed magazine.

For years people have refused to believe they exist. Now that we know that they are real, it is up to us to protect them from those that would hunt or try to capture them for research or for sport. They should be left alone to live as they live now. After all, they are our relatives.

At this time, analysis of the Sasquatch genomes is still ongoing. Further data will be presented in the future following this original study. Additionally, analysis of various hair samples purportedly from Siberian Wildman are being tested in an effort to determine if relatedness exists between the Sasquatch and Russian Wildman.

Dr. Igor Burtsev,
Head of International Center of Hominology,
Moscow, Russia +7(916)812-6253
inhomin@yandex.ru "

Almost immediately Dr. Melba Ketchum  responded on her Facebook page, “It is unfortunate that the partial summary of our data was released in this manner, however, I will be making a formal response in the next few days. Even though Igor Burtsev released this, it was not Dr. Burtsev’s fault.”

Another player in the Melba Ketchum project is David Paulides, who seems to want to position the Ketchum project in front of the Bryan Sykes Oxford University DNA study and any interest the TV Show Finding Bigfoot may have.

David Paulides writes on his website,  ”In the last twelve months you have seen a variety of groups suddenly take interest in bigfoot DNA. Where was that interest four years ago when we started our DNA Project? Dr. Jeff Meldrum has gone to Europe with his interest and utilized the resources of Oxford University in an attempt to develop a DNA sequence on Bigfoot. A weekly show about bigfoot also has just recently found an interest in bigfoot DNA and is trying to exploit this avenue, and there are others.”

Is any of this news? Steven Streufert does not think so. His reaction on his Facebook Group is as follows:

Sure, but really, NOTHING HAS CHANGED. All that happened was that Igor said something, and forced a response from the otherwise clammed-up Ketchum, and Paulides wrote his first blog entry since March 2012. The news? NOTHING.

Click the following link to learn more about Bryan Sykes Oxford University Bigfoot DNA Study
Click the following link to learn more about Melba Ketchums' Bigfoot DNA Study

WATCH a Documentary of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum's Mike Rugg

Mike Rugg opening his doors at the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Felton, CA

Ro Sahebi is a talented story teller, in the highest sense. In his most recent documentary he continues to showcase what we love about his work. First, he is a great interviewer, his genuine curiosity comes from a place we are probably unaware of. His ability to get great stuff from the people he interviews is uncanny and probably unparalleled. Second, he uses film to edit and weave atmosphere and pacing that gives his documentary context. Any body can point a camera and ask questions, very few can do what Ro Sahebi does. 

As you watch the documentary below and the dappled sun runs across the windshield, know that you are going to be transported. You will be reintroduced to Mike Rugg, a man who has contributed so much to the Bigfoot Community, it would be easy for new enthusiast to take him for granted. 

You can enjoy more of Ro's work at his website, The Bigfoot Report, and his The Bigfoot Report's You Tube Channel.

Slate Online Magazine Bashes Bigfoot

Sign on Pikes Peak Highway Photograph by Ashish S. Hareet/Wikimedia Commons

"Bigfoot is not a monster but a meme." -- Brian Switek

Slate is an online magazine first owned by Microsoft and currently by the Washington Post, it is known  as a current affairs and culture magazine. Although if you ask our opinion, it has never found a niche that distinguishes itself with any character. However it is not the opinion of the magazine overall that we want to focus on, it is today's article (11/21/2012) written by Brian Switek. Brian has been critical of Bigfoot before, but seems to especially target Jeff Meldrum. Earlier we covered Mr. Switek's critique of Meldrum.

Mr. Switek is at it again, criticizing Meldrum and Bigfooters in general. While we think skeptics are healthy for the Bigfoot community, we prefer the ones who have a more balanced approach and actually give constructive thought to our endeavor. We prefer the Brian Dunnings and Sharon Hills of the world.

To be honest, we look forward to Bigfoot criticism. We look forward to some insight to ourselves that we may not have the objectivity to see. Unfortunately Mr. Switek delivers the same old arguments, without a single new thought or novel take on the Bigfoot Phenomena. You can read a short excerpt below to get a sense of the direction Mr. Switek is going. You can follow the link below to read more of the same.

Jeff Meldrum wants to search for Bigfoot by using a remote-controlled blimp. Because when you’re looking for a mythical creature famous for eluding all who search for it, a giant, buzzing, looming balloon is clearly the way to go. Meldrum, a tenured Idaho State University anthropologist who established his career studying primate foot anatomy before shifting his focus to monsters, expects he’ll have to raise $300,000 to get the project airborne. He’s trying (and so far failing) to get funding from private sources. (No surprise that his home institution wants nothing to do with the endeavor.) That’s a lot of money and effort for what will undoubtedly turn out to be a collection of blurry photographs that look like Instagram snapshots from a visit to the Pacific Northwest woods.

I loved reading breathless tales of encounters with the Yeti, Loch Ness Monster, Jersey Devil, Bigfoot, and other cryptids as a child, but those stories have never been supported by anything more substantial than an out-of-focus snapshot or embellished campfire story. And in the case of North America’s legendary nonhuman ape, the picture historians and sociologists have pieced together is that Bigfoot and other shaggy humanoids are cultural inventions that we have repeatedly conjured so that there’s always something wild and mysterious in the woods. Stories about Bigfoot began to proliferate after expeditions in the Himalayas in the 1950s reported ambiguous Yeti footprints—none of which have been convincingly attributed to a Gigantopithecus descendant or other prehistoric hominid holdover. Sasquatch fans have since done a bit of retconning [sic] by claiming Native American stories and dubious historical encounters as part of their mythology, but the trail is clear. Bigfoot is not a monster but a meme.

SRC: Slate Magazine