A Life Size 3D Sasquatch Skeleton Shines Light on Sasquatch Posture

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.

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

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.

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/

Another Journalist Gets Roger Patterson's Deathbed Confession Wrong

Roger Patterson, known for filming a bigfoot in Bluff Creek, CA on October 20, 1967

"I was absolutely devastated the day I heard Roger Patterson had made a deathbed confession that the 1967 bigfoot footage he shot was a hoax." --Tony Casey, perpetuating a rumor

In an article titled, "Why we're always looking for the monsters on the hillside" and published by the Johnson City Press, journalist Tony Casey claims Roger Patterson had confessed on his deathbed he had hoaxed the film. There is no evidence for this. He continues to reason in his article how the "confession" shattered his hope that bigfoot was real, while shoring up his critical thinking. Read an excerpt below:

Leading up to Patterson’s admission, I was objectively sure — albeit in a non-scientific way — that if that footage was real, bigfoot was also most likely real because the creature in the film, according to my eyes, couldn’t be anything but bigfoot. It very clearly wasn’t a bear walking on two legs. It was one of two things: a human in an ape suit or bigfoot itself. The scene shot in the creek bed that day is forever ingrained in my mind: the massive upright ape-like creature, calmly walking with an impressively taut arm swing and carriage, moving away from the camera, looking over its shoulder to acknowledge the equipment, but not in too much of a hurry.

It was too good to be true. It was literally too good to be true. When I found out it was a hoax, things changed for me, but for the better I’d argue. Instead of taking things at face value, I began to require concrete evidence for my beliefs.

How about concrete evidence for your rumors?

The BFRO.net has a great article about how that deathbed confession rumor may have started. You can read about it below.

The most commonly heard false fact about the Patterson footage:

"The guy who got the footage admitted on his deathbed that he faked it."

This is not true. This is a mixup. Here's how the mixup started.
The man who obtained the most well known photo of the Loch Ness monster (not bigfoot) admitted on his deathbed that he faked that photo.

The story of his confession popped up in newspaper headlines around the world. The story didn't last long as a news item, but every new agency, in every country, on every continent, ran the story.

The story mutated in the press, from a crypto story about one photo from Loch Ness being debunked, to "Mystery of Loch Ness Finally Solved." 

The BFRO article continues to explain how things got worse.

 The Patterson footage was mistakenly associated with a "deathbed confession" related to a famous "monster" mystery.

The Loch Ness deathbed confession story grabbed such big headlines, it was inevitable that someone would try the same formula down the line. It only took a few more years.

The heirs of a man named Ray Wallace initially reported his "deathbed confession" about faking the first famous bigfoot tracks in Northern California.

Ray Wallace left behind a few pairs of wooden feet for making fake tracks. He would sell plaster casts of fake tracks at his roadside tourist shop.

His heirs later recanted the "deathbed confession" part of the story, and instead said they "just know he started the whole thing."

The initial "deathbed confession" element helpd [sic] get the story onto the AP Wire. It became "The Father of Bigfoot Dies". 

If you are interested, click to read New York Time's Ray Wallace deathbed confession article printed January 3, 2003.

You can even go to Tony Casey's article, Why we're always looking for the monsters on the hillside to let him know that Roger Patterson's deathbed confession is only a rumor and he can keep hoping for bigfoot.

Rick Dyer Continues to Search for Redemption with "Taxidermied" Bigfoot

Illustration by Paul Blow

“The only reason I kilt [Hank] is I had to have my redemption...” --Rick Dyer; Bigfoot Hoaxer

Hank is the name for Rick Dyer's "taxerdermied" bigfoot. And yes, taxidermied deserves to be in quotes.  You can read a whole history of Rick Dyer from Bigfoot Lunch Club; starting with the 2008 bigfoot press conference. Including Rick Dyer's arrest for eBay fraud and his admission that Hank is little more than Camel Hair and Latex.

This hasn't stopped Rick Dyer from touring the Walmart parking lots of America and sharing the story of how he shot Hank near San Antonio, Texas. Recently in an an in-depth article from Texas Monthly (9600 words!), journalist Jeff Winkler spends time with Rick Dyer in a Walmart parking lot asking about the medical 3D scans of the taxidermied bigfoot body, reviewing his checkered past, and the self comparisons of PT Barnum and Andy Kaufman. Read excerpts from these three highlights below.

ABOUT THE 3D MEDICAL SCAN

"Rick’s confidante and second-in-command, Andrew Clancy, explained that the embalming process and the use of a resin had given the exposed skin a chalky, plaster-of-Paris appearance. He told us the feet and hands had been covered because the big reveal of Hank’s extremities was being saved for a later date (though no hints were given as to what abnormalities might be hiding under the black sheet). Both Rick and Andrew enumerated, with exacting detail, what we were seeing on the 3-D medical scan being passed around, a diagnostic image, we were told, that would be impossible to fake. True, it had been Photoshopped, but only to hide the serial number at the bottom, the one that would identify the hospital where it was taken (there were only three such scanners in the world, they said)."

ABOUT RICK DYERS CHECKERED PAST

"[Bigfoot Tracker News], however, doesn’t just disagree with Rick. It has published all of Rick’s previous, non-Bigfoot-related brushes with the law. In 2012 Rick was arrested for aggravated battery of a pregnant person (his wife), with more than one anti-Rick blog indicating or flat-out saying that he beat the hell out of her. In 2011 Rick was charged with eBay fraud, involving the false sale of vehicles, in San Antonio. That same year, in Arkansas, Rick had been contracted to run a used-car lot after claiming he had worked at one in Las Vegas. The Arkansas business filed charges against him because, as someone associated with the company cautiously described, “the tickets didn’t add up . . . to the extent that we felt obligated to press charges.” Around the same time, Rick allegedly worked for a tow-truck company—called, appropriately, Bigfoot Towing—and a woman accused him of illegally impounding her car."

COMPARING HIMSELF TO PT BARNUM and ANDY KAUFMAN

How would you differentiate between a fraud, a hoaxster, and a prankster? What was P.T. Barnum or Andy Kaufman, the two men to whom Rick enjoys comparing himself?

Even Rick, usually so loquacious, struggled for the right words when I asked him about this in Paris. “I believe they were showmen,” said Rick after declaring the two men hoaxsters but definitely not frauds. “They knew how to work people, and I believe I know how to work people. The people who think that I’m a hoaxster, people who think I’m just a showman with nothing to show for it, they’re all going to have to eat their words.”

Click to read the whole article titled, "Rick Dyer’s Believe It Or Not!"