Doubtful News Reacts to Melba Ketchum's Bigfoot DNA

"To make such an extraordinary claim is to put yourself out on such a long, unstable limb! It is not how science is done, it’s how pseudoscience is done." --Sharon Hill of Doubtful News reacting to Melba Ketchum's Press Release

Sharon Hill is the editor of DoubtfulNews.com, it would not hurt our feelings one bit, if you jumped directly to her post titled, "Melba Ketchum announces Bigfoot DNA results. Without the data".

For the rest of you, let us tell you why Doubtful News is an important blog for bigfooters to follow. Unlike some of the other skeptics, Sharon Hill is extremely consistent in her critical thinking and arguments. Also unlike other skeptics, she does not pick low-hanging fruit to mock Bigfooters. The best reason to read Doubtful News is to get a fresh perspective, we have been challenged by Sharon Hill and feel we have been the better for it.

You can get a taste of her style from the excerpt below lifted from yesterday's (11.25.2012)  post, "Melba Ketchum announces Bigfoot DNA results. Without the data"

To make such an extraordinary claim is to put yourself out on such a long, unstable limb! It is not how science is done, it’s how pseudoscience is done. But, let’s just say that Dr. K has results and is confident in them. She sure is in a pickle now because there is still NO paper and no hint of when or where it will be published. Much is going on behind the scenes that the interested public is not privy to. To be practical, this announcement gets us absolutely NO further to a Bigfoot discovery than yesterday or the day before. It’s still vaporware. No paper, no data, no body, no Bigfoot.

Read the rest at Doubtful News: "Melba Ketchum announces Bigfoot DNA results. Without the data".

Who is Melba Ketchum's Spokesperson? And who said what about Angel DNA?

Melba Ketchum's Spokeperson has been feeding Bigfoot Blueberry  Bagels for years

Robert Lindsay, no stranger to provocation, but also well-sourced, expands on Melba Ketchum's spokesperson. In case you haven't heard Melba Ketchum has written a press release about Bigfoot DNA, due to some info that spilled a day before. He also claims the first draft of the Bigfoot DNA study manuscript by Dr. Melba Ketchum contained a references to "angel DNA"

Melba Ketchum's Spokesperson Feeds About Ten Bigfoots on Her Property

Robert Lindsay points out that, "Ketchum’s apparent spokesman seems to be Robin Lynne, a longtime Bigfoot habituator who lives in rural Michigan. She claims that there are up to 10 Bigfoots living around her property and every day, she feeds them a variety of foods including Blueberry muffins, which they are particularly fond of. A lot of people have ridiculed her story, but according to information I have, there may indeed be Bigfoots on the property assuming some of the things she is relating are actually occurring."

This has definitely been documented. On October 13th of 2011, Robin Lynne is quoted in Discovery News. 

"They get fish every day, a bucket of fruit, a bucket of dry dog food," said Robin Lynn Pfeifer, a 47-year-old resident of Newaygo County, north of Grand Rapids. "Their favorite thing is blueberry bagels.

Later that same year in October 25th, 2011, Robin Lynne is quoted in the Wall Street Journal.

...in rural Michigan, where Robin Lynne, 48, says she has been feeding a family of Bigfoots outside her home for two years.

Hosted by the regional government, Ms. Lynne flew to Siberia for the conference this month, where a tour bus with police escort drove participants to a hunting lodge in the piney outback. There, Ms. Lynne described how the Bigfoots bang on her door, bring her sticks as presents and drink water from a bucket in the yard when the weather is warm. "They love the bucket," she told the group.

Original Ketchum Paper Mentioned “angel DNA.” 
Robert Lindsay continues to mention how one of his sources told him that the original research manuscript referenced "angel DNA'

Original Ketchum paper mentioned “angel DNA.” A source tells me that Wally Hersom has discussed the initial version of Ketchum’s paper. According to Hersom, the paper is very well written, but its conclusions are hard to take.

Ketchum writes that there are aspects of the Bigfoot nuclear subhuman DNA that she cannot find in any DNA database, and according to her, this means that the DNA is not of this Earth. In the paper, she reportedly refers to this as “angel DNA.” Whether she is trying to say that it is from angels literally or whether this is her way of saying that it’s from outer space, I do not know.

Hersom was reportedly disappointed in the paper and averred that while this may be true, no scientific journal on Earth is going to publish anything about “angel DNA.” I would certainly agree with that statement. Sure, maybe there is “angel DNA” in the Bigfoots. For all I know, this may be true. But on the other hand, of course no journal will touch this with a 10-foot pole.

I do not know whether or not she has rewritten her paper to take out the reference to “angel DNA” but I would certainly hope so.

You can read Robert Lindsay's entire post  titled, "Bigfoot News Thanksgiving Edition, 2012"

Bigfoot DNA Sequenced, Bigfoot is Part Human

Dr. Melba Ketchum head one of the two major Bigfoot DNA projects.

“Genetically, the Sasquatch are a human hybrid with unambiguously modern human maternal ancestry. Government at all levels must recognize them as an indigenous people and immediately protect their human and Constitutional rights" --Dr. Melba Ketchum

Most likely due to yesterday's events. Today (11.24.2012), on her official Facebook page, Dr. Melba Ketchum posted a press release based on the Bigfoot DNA project she has been working on for the better half of the last decade.

In the release Dr. Melba Ketchum announces the sequencing of Bigfoot DNA, she notes that the nuclear DNA is human, there are also NON-human and NON-apes in the DNA. Read the whole thing below.

In fairness, this information HAS NOT been peer reviewed, and even if the results are as they claim, the response does not reflect the majority of Bigfooters.  There is also a  parallel Bigfoot DNA study being done by Bryan Sykes of Oxford University that will have published peer-reviewed results early next year.

Also to be fair, at Bigfoot Lunch Club, we have been fairly critical of Dr. Melba Ketchum's approach read "Melba is a no show, then Literally Phones it in" and "Melba Ketchum Has a History of Failing to Deliver DNA Results". None the less, we still look forward to her results AFTER they have been peer-reviewed. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

‘BIGFOOT’ DNA SEQUENCED IN UPCOMING GENETICS STUDY

Five-Year Genome Study Yields Evidence of Homo sapiens/Unknown Hominin Hybrid Species in North America

Contact: Robin Lynne, media@dnadiagnostics.com, 231.622.5362

DALLAS, Nov. 24--A team of scientists can verify that their 5-year long DNA study, currently under peer-review, confirms the existence of a novel hominin hybrid species, commonly called “Bigfoot” or “Sasquatch,” living in North America. Researchers’ extensive DNA sequencing suggests that the legendary Sasquatch is a human relative that arose approximately 15,000 years ago as a hybrid cross of modern Homo sapiens with an unknown primate species.

The study was conducted by a team of experts in genetics, forensics, imaging and pathology, led by Dr. Melba S. Ketchum of Nacogdoches, TX. In response to recent interest in the study, Dr. Ketchum can confirm that her team has sequenced 3 complete Sasquatch nuclear genomes and determined the species is a human hybrid:

“Our study has sequenced 20 whole mitochondrial genomes and utilized next generation sequencing to obtain 3 whole nuclear genomes from purported Sasquatch samples. The genome sequencing shows that Sasquatch mtDNA is identical to modern Homo sapiens, but Sasquatch nuDNA is a novel, unknown hominin related to Homo sapiens and other primate species. Our data indicate that the North American Sasquatch is a hybrid species, the result of males of an unknown hominin species crossing with female Homo sapiens.

Hominins are members of the taxonomic grouping Hominini, which includes all members of the genus Homo. Genetic testing has already ruled out Homo neanderthalis and the Denisova hominin as contributors to Sasquatch mtDNA or nuDNA. “The male progenitor that contributed the unknown sequence to this hybrid is unique as its DNA is more distantly removed from humans than other recently discovered hominins like the Denisovan individual,” explains Ketchum.

“Sasquatch nuclear DNA is incredibly novel and not at all what we had expected. While it has human nuclear DNA within its genome, there are also distinctly non-human, non-archaic hominin, and non-ape sequences. We describe it as a mosaic of human and novel non-human sequence. Further study is needed and is ongoing to better characterize and understand Sasquatch nuclear DNA.”

Ketchum is a veterinarian whose professional experience includes 27 years of research in genetics, including forensics. Early in her career she also practiced veterinary medicine, and she has previously been published as a participant in mapping the equine genome. She began testing the DNA of purported Sasquatch hair samples 5 years ago.

Ketchum calls on public officials and law enforcement to immediately recognize the Sasquatch as an indigenous people:

“Genetically, the Sasquatch are a human hybrid with unambiguously modern human maternal ancestry. Government at all levels must recognize them as an indigenous people and immediately protect their human and Constitutional rights against those who would see in their physical and cultural differences a ‘license’ to hunt, trap, or kill them.”

Full details of the study will be presented in the near future when the study manuscript publishes.

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