Biology Meets Bigfoot
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on May 3rd, 2006
In Tuesday’s Columbus (OH) Dispatch, Scott Moody, a forensics biology professor at Ohio University, pretty much dismisses Bigfoot outside of the Pacific Northwest. He is quoted as someone who did not automatically dismiss sightings of Bigfoot in Ohio in the past, as he is willing to give most anyone the benefit of the doubt.
He investigated ONE Bigfoot sighting in Ohio, and based on his findings from this single investigation, he is willing to say that Bigfoot sightings in Ohio are nothing but myth. That’s right, he felt that there might be something to all of the stories, but ONE investigation, negated all of the others. That doesn’t sound too scientific to me, to dismiss all Bigfoot reports from the Eastern United States because ONE investigation turned up evidence that pointed to the mundane.
He apparently still thinks that Bigfoot may exist in the Western United States from his quotes from the article though.
Although he dismisses most reports of Bigfoot in the eastern United States, Moody said he thinks that 8-foot-tall, 500-pound beasts with 8-inch-wide feet could be living deep in the mountains out West.
Forensic evidence has been found: primate hair and footprints with dermal ridges, which are similar to the ridges on fingerprints.
Footprints with those dermal ridges would be difficult to fake, he said.
And what was the report in question that he investigated you ask? It was this report, to the best of my knowledge. The article mentions that the report was filed on the "Ohio Bigfoot Research Organization’s" Web site. I am not aware of any organization by that name, but the online report matches the details from the Dispatch article.
Moody did have some very interesting things to say regarding Bigfoot research in the article however.
Most scientists stay away from Bigfoot research, but Moody uses it to entice students to consider forensics as a career. In addition, scientific advances enable a few interested researchers to attack the Bigfoot legend with new techniques, especially genetics analysis.
"That’s where I butted heads with some of the Bigfoot people who want to believe everything they see out there," Moody said. "This case has no evidence whatsoever."
"People think forensics is only DNA from a dead human body," Moody said.
Think CSI meets Nature.
Bigfoot is perhaps the ultimate fugitive, so it makes sense to explain forensics to prospective students attending the science meeting.
With the good must come the bad apparently. The following photo ran with the article.
MICHAEL P. KING, DIANA HOLBROOK DISPATCH PHOTO ILLUSTRATION
OU biology professor Scott Moody mimics the infamous Bigfoot film shot in 1967 by Roger Patterson. The film, like others, was proved a hoax.
Say what? The Patterson film was proved a hoax???
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
“Biology” is a vast science. People should use the word with respect. Craig certainly shows that what this Moody scientist did was far short of a comprehensive study of Bigfoot. Once again, we see a newspaper, even in their headline – “Biology Meets Bigfoot” – putting out all hype and no substance.
The Wayne National Forest, which is where this event took place, is a huge tract of land. Though it isn’t exactly contiguous, it is only broken up by small farm plots, subdivisions, quarries, coal mines and other small developments. The Wayne extends from Athens County into Lawrence County where it then connects, through private tracts of rugged, forested land to the Shawnee State Forest in Scioto and Adams Counties.
This land is where the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains extend from West Virginia and Kentucky into Ohio, and it is very rugged, rural and forested.
If hairy hominids are living anywhere in the east, I’d say this is prime habitat.
Having said that, I grew up in Greenup County, Kentucky and Scioto and Adams Counties, Ohio. These are my stomping grounds, and I’ve never seen anything in those woods that I couldn’t identify. However two others close to me, whose word I trust, have told me that they heard strange noises in the Wayne and saw something unexplained while jogging in the Shawnee, respectively.
In addition, the Portsmouth Daily Times has covered reports of mystery hominids in Shawnee State Forest.
I will try to find the exact date of those newspaper reports and post that data here.
On the past bigfoot reports in southern Ohio I found this:
This is the Portsmouth Daily Times article on Bigfoot in Shawnee Forest that I referenced previously, along with other stories of hairy hominids in the Wayne National Forest.
Here we have the account of other researchers who have worked with Gilbert and Burton (the subjects of the Stanley article in the Daily Times posted above)
Here are links to the pages for the Wayne and Shawnee forests.
Interesting photo. So a man can mimick the posture. But his fingertips are nowhere near his knees. (see comment #23 there)
Have a question (and this isn’t to negate or prove anything) – are Bigfoot migratory? Or is it presumed they stick pretty close to home all year – whether they range or not?
Well, it appears that Mr. Moody has some statements that perhaps he should reconcile. That is, if he dismisses most, if not all eastern US bigfoot reports, but yet at the same time puts stock in purported sasquatch dermal ridges, how does he account for the Elkins Creek track, which is one of the casts which Chilcutt thinks has legitimate dermal ridges. Where did this cast come from you ask? Georgia. There’s not a whole heckuva lotta eastern left once you reach Georgia.
Speaking of the Elkins Creek cast Sergio, a copy of this cast will be shown and discussed this Saturday during Jimmy Chilcutt’s presentation at the Bigfoot in Texas? exhibit and lecture series.
It is disappointing that scientists, like Mr. Moody, haven’t been exposed to evidence from outside the western states. I too had a bias that bigfoot likely didn’t inhabit anything east of the Rookies, but based on the evidence, that clearly isn’t so.