Melba Ketchum’s Official Press Release on Her Bigfoot DNA Project
Posted by: Guy Edwards on November 24th, 2012
Most likely due to yesterday’s events. Today (11.24.2012) on her official Facebook page, Melba Ketchum posted a press release based on the Bigfoot DNA project she has been working on for a better half of the last decade.
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, [email protected], 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.
About Guy Edwards
Psychology reduces to biology, all biology to chemistry, chemistry to physics, and finally physics to mathematical logic.
Guy Edwards is host of the Portland, OR event HopsSquatch.com.
Woohoo!
It is my understanding that this is being published and has passed peer review process. If you have questions contact Robin Lynne.. I found her to be very helpful..
When will this hit the mainstream media and how are they expected to handle? By that I mean taking it seriously or treating it like some sort of tabloid story?
Take THAT, Ape Theorists!!! Hey… just another “bizarre post” from yours truly…
Do we get to see Dr. Meldrum eat a crow on live TV?
Now that I’ve calmed down a little, I’d also like to say that, this close to the heels of Thanksgiving, we now can all add out thanks that heretofore, all hoaxsters are rendered irrelevant and ridiculous. Now they can go home and watch episodes of HEE-HAW on their Betamaxes.
The phrase is “the better half,” not “a better half”; but in the case that’s not accurate anyway because she says the study has been underway for five years, which is just “half” of a decade.
I’m dancing in the aisles at this wonderful news and great achievment by Dr Ketchum and her team and those that troubled to provide her with the samples and many others ! Well she kept butting that dam and has succeeded and now a new journey of discovery begins.
Clearly there is a lot to be done and the journey should be a pleasure despite the naysayers along the way who eagerly point out the interim nature of the present situation.
I am fascinated and curious about the nature of the ‘distinctly non-human, non archaic hominin with a non-ape sequence ‘ , whatever can it be ? One can speculate but arrive at some strange territory
very interesting.
so based on what they’re saying, if this happened so long ago… there would have to be a bunch of them to survive 15,000 years ago, no?
this couldn’t just have been a 1 off thing.
this “mating” had to be going on for a while to produce a bunch of em no?
i’m sure you’re going to get those in the medical community saying you cant mate primate with human…. so thats another topic.
I am so Happy. So many haters. Funny they’re not here running they’re gums.
Protection is a must. We do not need a body. This is enough. Let the haters hate! I am so excited.
I really hate to write this as to me it seems that all the evidence points to the existence of Bigfoot/Sasquatch, but the whole “human hybrid” thing strikes me as something too far fetched to be true. The animals reported across North America seem in appearance and behavior to be much closer to apes than any form of human, much less one that would have a homosapien ancestor and you can only go so far down the evolutionary scale before that hybridization becomes impossible. I would love to have egg on my face as this would be a dramatic discovery, but I have a feeling that this is going to unravel pretty quick.
Not getting my hopes up.
I’m the kind of guy that never gets overly excited when a bomb drops like this because most of the time the bomb is a dud. I’ll believe it when I see it. I do want to believe it though, for sure. I can say that I never thought Sasquatch would be a human hybrid. If this really is true it’s going to bring up some strange and very difficult questions for many people.
I just read from another blog, that Dr. Ketchum’s original paper referred to the “Unknown Primate” as “Angel DNA.” I was confused by this until that same blogger pointed out the account in Genesis about Angels coming down from Heaven because they desired human women. Supposedly, when they bred with these women, it produced giants, and these giants were one of the reasons for the great flood. It is very disappointing to read this, because it makes me think that Dr. Ketchum might just be crazy.
Ken,
Whoa, are you saying that Squatches are “Nephilim?” Coast-2-Coast AM Here we come!
@Ken: what about the guys at CERN, with the God Particle? Are they crazy for naming it that? It’s just an evocative name, I wouldn’t think about it too hard. Gotta admit, it all fits.. if I knew the slightest thing about the Bible, I would have been tempted to call it “Angel DNA” too..
So.. this probably has been asked a million times, but.. why isn’t this all over the news? : / What am I missing?
Doomguy: this is not all over everything because of what might be called Georgia Boys/Johor Backlash Syndrome. Translation: if it looks like yet another sasquatch circus, it just may be.
My best case scenario is that this might get a few more scientists interested. But I’m not liking the looks of things so far. This isn’t going according to Hoyle, from a scientific standpoint, and it’s already helping load the skeptics’ guns.
Science has demanded a body to accept this animal for decades now. That won’t change just because somebody doesn’t know how to properly submit a scientific paper.
If they ignored Patterson-Gimlin, they can ignore this.
As for the human hybrid finding: well, native lore speaks of such things. If you don’t discount native lore – and that’s never a good idea if you are interesting in knowing – you can’t discount that either. But, as J. Robert Alley says in Raincoast Sasquatch, if we never find out what’s up with that, it may be a very good thing.
Here’s the giant red flag about all this. Anyone who’s taken a high school biology class that taught basic genetics should spot it. For Sasquatch to have purely human mtDNA, and for that to result from a hybridization event 15,000 years ago, then the remaining female breeding population for the entire species must have been completely wiped out, leaving ONLY the females from the hybridization event. This would suggest a catastrophic bottleneck that may have left only one group of breeding creatures, with ONLY females with the human mtDNA. This population would then have to make its way over to North America and populate the continent after the retreat of the glaciers. How much more likely is that the sample was contaminated with human mtDNA, perhaps from Melba Ketchum herself?
Another issue is that for a “hybridization” to take like this, the male has to come from an undefined member of the Homo genus. But the physical characteristics described for Sasquatch, especially the foot anatomy, strongly suggest to me that the genus is not Homo, but another type of hominin or even a primate that independently evolved bipedalism. Admittedly, I am talking from memory here, but I recall that foot anatomy for members of genus Homo has not really changed much from H. habilis, meaning that our modern feet aren’t all that different from our distant ancestors, who exhibited arches much as we do. According to Meldrum, though (again, speaking from memory), the anatomy of Sasquatch feet differ from humans in not having the arched foot. In addition to foot anatomy, other members of genus Homo, while obviously having different cranial anatomy, are still recognizable human – different, but human. Sasquatch comes off as NOT human, similar to how we react to seeing other closely related primates such as gorillas or chimps.
As I’ve said before, the results must be duplicated at another, independent laboratory for any DNA analyses to hold water when attempting to provide evidence for a controversial species. The whole Ketchum affair is just too problematic to take at face value.
Norman uk – where are you in the U.K. Brother ? I am in London.
Ken- which blog are you talking about ?
disinformation particularly on the web is rife, geez next you will be telling me that Bin Laden was killed just over a year ago! sheeeeeesh! rolls eyes
@Kimble, I am not saying that at all, I am saying that I heard Dr. Ketchem said that, and I hope she didn’t, since credibility is hard to come by in the Bigfoot field, and that would seem to set things back.
@Doomguy, the “God Particle” is a shortening of the name “God-damned Particle,” called that because it was so difficult to prove.
We are years away from understanding, but this paper if, if it passes peer review, will take a huge step into answering the questions in many directions.
Dr Ketchums findings actually make sense.
There were many Genus-Homo, some I am sure have not been found as yet.
Homo heidelbergensis and Homo neanderthalensis are closely related to each other and have been considered subspecies of Homo sapiens. Both lived in Europe and Asia.
If remnant populations of these Genus Homo migrated east following the same path Homo sapiens used, it is conceivable that they bred with those same Homo sapiens
It would prove some Native American stories as fact, tribes of Giant Forest People, that were to be avoided and respected.
If a species is dying out and mates cannot be found, the only option is to seek other similar species to breed with…it is simply nature’s driving force to continue a species.
In Florida now, python species are breeding amongst each other as released pet pythons of different breeds are finding that the only other options than extinction. The result is mixed breed giant snakes…Rock python + Indian Python = a giant python
Mixed breeds often create larger offspring, example tiger and lion mix
A species of Homo on the verge of extinction, finds Homo sapiens to breed with and the species lives on. The very first Americans here were all the were available to breed with and descendants of that breeding are what may be the “species” we call Bigfoot.
Good lord, what low standards are required for Bigfoot believers!
It wouldn’t even need to be mentioned in a non-fantasy world that this idiocy follows NONE of the established protocols for scientific research We have suspect & secret data, secret methodology, secret team, etc. And yet above we see that this is more than enough for some of the faithful.
By all means, enjoy your tawdry fantasy.
And please don’t bother to ever ask why this field is exclusively the subject of ridicule.
Sorry I didn’t include the link before, here you go.
Personally, I’ll believe it when I see it published.
So sasquatches are human? there goes the nighborhood. kudos to the lovely Dr ketchum and everyone else who gave of their time and resources.However, in light of these bizarre findings, there are a few things that trouble me:(1) is that hunter(he of the “bigfoot steak”) now guilty of murder?it would seem he sould be having a csi moment.(2)As an “indiginous” people,are they subject to all laws(are they breaking the law by walking around naked?)and (a)white(b)hispanic(c)black or (d) native american? (3)are we violating there rights by (a)hunting them(b)trail-camming them or(c)allowing a team of idiots to step off a plane, loudly proclaim there are sasquatches about, then start howling,shooting off fireworks,and turning on a disco ball(whats next, extasy lures? But i degress;if this proves the existance of the big guy, once and for all, well….i feel like i did as a small child in the 70’s, reading about momo. sooka-sooka, one and all.
.
I would find it funny that so many of you are so willing to believe any evidence that backs up the existence of ol’ squatchy, but it actually makes me sad to read all of this blind enthusiasm.
This whole thing just smells like crap science done by a bunch of wanna-be academics.
The word is already out in the skeptic community, and the word is this entire event is a trainwreck and that no results will happen. The early release had made it difficult for even the science community to take this seriously, I was poking around and wasn’t surprised to see the doubt and disgust at the unprofessional behavior by all parties. I can’t say I have any pity for the parties involved, they brought it on to themselves.
No publication, no professionalism, just what it appears to be, knuckle dragging and empty promises. They are listing this as hoax.
I honestly feel this entire mess has made it impossible for scientific folks who separate men like Meldrum from Biscardi. It’s pretty darned sad. I feel bad for them, folks searching out of curiosity and trying hard to do it right don’t deserve to be made fun of because folks can’t be professional.
oops, I mean to not who in this sentence….
I honestly feel this entire mess has made it impossible for scientific folks to separate men like Meldrum from Biscardi.
@ lancemoody
you can save your cocky attitude unless you can tell all of us where humans came from? how did we come about? oh you don’t know? lol.. that’s right you don’t.. none of us really do for sure.. so there in lies the problem now doesn’t it? if we don’t even know where we came from how do we expect to be able to say where bigfoot came from?
Anyone who has bothered to look into human origins knows there is no definitive answer.. there are only theories… so lets not act like you have all the answers..
@ lancemoody
and further more regarding you comment “And please don’t bother to ever ask why this field is exclusively the subject of ridicule.”
Yes, its true there are some idiots and hoaxers who make bigfoot look silly but the biggest reason for ridicule is close minded fools who don’t do any sort of real research into the topic. they just shoot off their mouth.. i guess because that’s easier and because these people usually like to hear themselves talk.. we all know the type.. the type that’s never wrong and is an all around know-it-all even though they really don’t know sh*t…
if you ask me.. that’s somebody else s problem.. not mine 😉
@Goodfoot – Do you really think this “so called” DNA evidence will hold up? Consider all the other samples that were collected over the years that had DNA results for an “uknown primate.” Look at who is associasted with this project. Your buddy Igor thinks sasquatches borrow garlic from some woman in Tennessee to kept insects away. This is a farce and in my honest opinion “bad science.”
lancemoody:
While I share your nose-holding over this latest circus, I must disagree with
“And please don’t bother to ever ask why this field is exclusively the subject of ridicule.”
I don’t have to ask, because I know the answer, and it’s not the one you appear to think.
This field is the subject of ridicule because people who call themselves skeptical, and demonstrably are not, make tons of assumptions – in fact, their entire position is an assumption, a nonstarter in science – and address all their causticity on this topic to the soft underbelly of the proponent fringe, apparently failing to note – as any person with a normal level of curiosity would – that scientists with directly relevant expertise violently disagree with them.
Just a few random thoughts in reaction to this news:
-The press release only mentions hair samples, not tissue samples associated with the much hypothesized “steak.” Good.
-Five years to sequence a hair DNA sample? Our good doctor is not going to get any accolades for alacrity, is she?
-Unless these results are accepted to be published in respectable science journal, and her methods are subjected to peer review, this will be a “Yawn….NEXT!” event. Apparently, this acceptance has not been forthcoming. Central to the review of anyone who purports to be sequencing Sasquatch DNA is the cirsumstances surrounding the collection of the specimen. Without that being disclosed for review, nobody outside of a very small community of people will treat this seriously, or as other than a potential hoax. Even then, you can count on a large number of accademians chalking these findings up to a contaminated specimen.
-Even without publication, the possibility of multiple, independent studies coming to a similar conclusion does at least have the potential to make these findings much more credible. Dr. Sykes’ study, which he is currently undertaking, with assistance from Dr. Meldrum, is one of those. I also have to believe that Sykes’ credibility in this field may open doors for publication that Dr. Ketchum may have found closed to her.
-As to the actual findings…Hol Cow! I immediately thought of some Native American legends that implicated Sasquatch in the abduction of women in the deep past. Might be time to reconsider the basis of those legends, don’t you think?
-Under the circumstances, I wouldn’t expect to see these results published in tomorrow’s NYT’s Science Tuesday section. But, when Dr. Sykes’ findings are reported, and published, and if they agree with Dr. Ketchum’s…well, then we may have something truly credible.
Mr. Joshua: Have a nice day. Oops, you’re NOT having a nice day.
Ploughboy: Why is it, I keep wondering, that so many people think it must be an abducted human FEMALE that is the human parent? Albert Ostman’s story suggests it might be a MALE human. We can’t jump to these kinds of conclusions… EITHER might be possible. Too many King Kong remakes, I suppose.
Ploughboy:
I have a respondent on a Bigfoot Forums thread to whom I was considering sending your response above, verbatim.
The chances, right now, of this becoming a landmark finding appear rather dim. That type specimen is something the mainstream has insisted is required. That is not what a claimed DNA result is. Has anyone else seen any reason for that to change?
Hey, just correct my typos if you do. (Mutters something about Loren’s choice of font….grumbles incoherently….pats pockets for spectacles…takes nap instead)
Everyone on here hopes and prays that this is the big breakthrough. Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. Tested by peers and having the science behind this published will certainly go a long way to proving, once and for all, the existence of Bigfoot.
But here, as it stands, it is just another, in a long line of “proof” that has soured mainstream science away from the Bigfoot community. Until the results are recognized and published in a mainstream science periodical, we should do well to keep our fingers crossed, hoping the improbable will indeed come to pass while keeping the eternal flame of curiosity lit that guides each of us down this path.
ploughboy
If you are referring to the above press release I cannot see a reference to the nature of the samples nor that they were just hair. This could be important as certain body items could reinforce the case for dna, in context, being a type specimen. I understand a finger nail was one of the samples for instance. Media diagnostics at this point are not giving any imformation about the nature of the samples.
Getting correct results isn’t about alacrity and doubt it was possible to sequence a complete human genome very rapidly in 2008. The technology has and is advancing very rapidly.
Dr Ketchum stated early on that she was going to do the study by the book, including peer review by appropriate persons etc. I can see no reason to doubt that she has done so ! Nor that the samples taken do not have context or the results she has obtained will not be repeatable by those that dare do so. The fact is further imformation is not available at this point but should be available in the near future.
Clearly there is risk that some samples will be sent with malicious intentions and even doctored as I think we are at a point where that could happen now dna manipulation is a computer game and an alternative to dna has been designed. These are hurdles not insumountable obstacles!
Personally I am certain sasquatch exists because of the accumulation of evidence therefore it must be possible to find evidence/proof especially dna and it is a failure of science that it has not done so not sasquatch enthusiasts. more so now with modern developments and imformation that is coming to light. Until now the dna situation has been as a desert led by the new york labs and Todd Disotell who found nearly all putative sasquatch samples as either contaminated or your normal humans. A reputation built on not finding anything new!
Dr Ketchum’s efforts have been heroic in organising the dna project and now waiting for the result of peer review. I imagine this is a very difficult process in view of the subject and revolution in thinking implied. I think the nearest up to now was Dr Sykes who got an amazing result but then retracted it as he felt he had an insufficient sample but now being reported as bear (in addition to two other bear results from two other samples).
I do not expect Dr Ketchum has everything right but what a huge advance is involved from virtually nothing to dna results which can be poked about and polished and talked about and admired ad infinitum. At least we can expect a two step forward situation if one step back!
So, what exactly is so exciting about detecting human DNA in hypothetical Sasquatch samples?
(That’s all she has admitted to finding; the hybridization “theory” she has put forth to explain the presence of unclassifiable DNA material is of course pure speculation)
I have spent a fair amount of time studying what I call “modern propaganda technology” or the way that the “powers that be” (in various fields – Government, Science, powerful interest groups and corporations) manipulate public opinion and maintain the status quo of conventional wisdom which benefits them against new ideas, inventions and discoveries which threaten their positions atop the social and economic foodchain so to speak. Its important for Bigfoot enthusiasts and open minded people to think about this and be prepared for how Dr Ketchum’s (or any other scientist valiently attempting to seriously study Sasquatch) will be treated.
I would ask you to think about two rather contemporary examples of discoveries with profound significance to every person on this planet – “Cold Fusion” or Low Energy Nuclear Reactions, and Anthropomorphic Global Warming / Climate Change. You may be surprised to know that “Cold Fusion” whatever it is exactly that Pons and Flieschmann observed has been replicated by hundreds of Scientists around the world including the US Navy SPAWAR Lab. Climate Change has been the subject of literally thousands of scientific peer reviewed studies all of which reached the same conclusion as the US Pentagon – namely that the Global Climate is warming dramatically, quickly and unnaturally due to man made pollution and that this warming is dangerous to all life on earth.
Both of these subjects have many times the number of scientific corroboration than 1, 2, or 3 Bigfoot Studies. In fact the science on each is near unanimous yet many or maybe most of you reading this right now believe that Cold Fusion was shown to be a fraud or poor science and you may suspect that Climate Change is some kind of Liberal Conspiracy or at very least an open question with a great deal of scientific debate pro and con – if that’s what you think – you’re wrong though you are far from alone. So why is that?
I will explain it in greater detail soon if people or Loren are interested, but in a nut-shell, these discoveries threaten the status quo – they threaten the pocketbooks of tremendously wealthy corporate interests like Big Oil and Big Coal, they threaten the income and egos of all the Professors and Scientists who have collected Billions of Dollars of Government Grants studying “Hot Fusion” and trying to build a Hot Fusion Reactor and on and on. In fact I’m sure you are aware of the long history of scientists who were rejected and ridiculed in their day for their new science only to be posthumously recognized as heros and geniuses.
The way our modern media and establishment work their magic is this: all they have to do is have a handful of nay-sayers ready to sow doubt and make determined and authoritarian sounding criticisms of any new science ready and then they attack with coordinated ferocity. There is a huge and well established network of paid scientists, think tanks and flat out propagandists ready on a moments notice to attack and play on the previously established prejudice against things like Bigfoot.
So, my point here is that we of open and hopeful minds and honest hearts need to brace ourselves for the onslaught against any scientific study that affirms Bigfoot’s existence. In fact, I see its already started as evidenced here on this site. We should stand behind these scientists and urge them to work together, no, demand that they do. I think Dr Ketchum and Dr Meldrum are sincere and probably courageous people. I didn’t even post my background on my Crypto profile because I know first hand how nasty things can get these days.
My point here is this: if Dr Ketchum or anyone else can get their paper through peer review (a big if) it will be attacked and even 10 such papers will not cause a sea change at all because that’s the way the world works these days. I thought if you all know this going in it may help everyone stay aboard ship when the inevitable storm hits.
mostlyhuman
What would be exciting isnt human dna its the other, whatever that may be ! As you say-up to now this is unclassified and now maybe the time to do that and fit it to all the historical evidence such as eyewitness accounts. Why we’ll have more imformation than we have for we have for denesova !
Of course I am jumping the gun but dna evidence of sasquatch is overdue.
until there is real proof, i’m afraid this is all just talk and nonsense.
talk about screwing up a potentially major event… 5 years to get DNA, the “holy grail” for bigfooters (next to a body) and this is how it unfolds.
and people wonder why the public doesn’t take this stuff seriously.
Ketchum is a fraud (in my opinion) and her company has been consistently given terrible reviews by the Better Business Bureau. Some of this DNA was also taken off blueberry bagels that were fed to a bigfoot in Michigan. (does he enjoy cream cheese?) Goodfoot, if you believe bigfoot captured someone and he got away by giving him his “snuff” then you are certainly gravitating around Pluto. Just save me some bigfoot “steak” with a little Ketchum…I mean ketchup.
dconstrukt:
I said above, responding to lancemoody, why the public doesn’t take this seriously.
It’s easy to focus on the evidence and ignore the sideshows. I view this as a sideshow.
just read this on yahoo:
The Houston Chronicle’s Eric Berger does some unraveling of Ketchum and the claims she made in the news release.
For starters, Berger notes that while Ketchum has 27 years of genetic research experience during her career as a veterinarian, her company, DNA Diagnostics, has received an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau.
But more important, Ketchum has not allowed scientific peer review of her findings.
“That is a massive red flag. Real research scientists almost never preannounce their research findings,” Berger writes. “In effect she is using the mantle of science to confer credibility on her discovery, without actually deserving the credibility.”
And finally, where exactly did Ketchum get her DNA sample? After all, if she was working from a reliable source, that alone might be the real story because no physical evidence of Bigfoot exists on record.
As it turns out, Ketchum says her DNA sample was obtained from a blueberry bagel left in the backyard of a Michigan home that, according to the owner, sees regular visits from Sasquatch creatures.
Discuss.