Bigfoot News, Robert Lindsay

[Public Service announcement for the people who would want to check out the ongoing soap opera drama involving Justin Smeja, Melba Ketchum and Rick Dyer, I am not following any of them any more on this blog. I should mention that the Mississippi Bowhunter video also looks to me as if it has a chance of being genuine...]

 

New Bigfoot news! Jeff Meldrum has a Sasquatch encounter in Canada! Dr. Melba Ketchum now a teen novelist. And a mass Sasquatch sighting in British Colombia by 26 men all at once.

http://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2013/12/14/bigfoot-news-december-14-2013/

 

Bigfoot News December 14, 2013

 

robertlindsay.wordpress.com

 

Interesting news - Jeff Meldrum reportedly had his first Bigfoot encounter in Canada earlier this year. The rumor is that John Bindernagel was with him on this trip. The location is somewhere in Al...

Footprint Casts posted on Dr Meldrum's Facebook Wall

Don Jeffrey Meldrum: Just received some interesting information from William G. Heideman, who shared some of his experiences in the Bluff Creek, CA area during the summer of 1963, 50 years ago! A group of casts from that period was photographed at the home of Betty Allen of Willow Creek, CA, 10 July 1963. The tracks in casts 1 and 3 (L-R) were in the sandbar and water action had distorted the toes. Cast 4 is the last remaining cast from that collection, pictured in the next photo. Cast 5 was taken at a logging landing above the Creek.

--In this case there was some argument over possible faking and I shall admit that the two at far right do look suspiciously flat and featureless. The two at lefy were made underwater and both exhibit a peculiar toe-drag which could be due to the way the feet work in the sandy bottom underwater, and so I take those to be legitimate Sasquatch type footprints (Please note I am not saying the ones at right ARE necessarily faked, only just that they look funny to me from the photo) The ones I am really interested in are the smaller ones at position 2. those ones look very much Neanderthaloid (Like some of the small tracks from Texas) and I suspect they were made by the American Almas on this occasion.

Some More American Almas tracks, the top two are from Ohio. The bottom casts are from BFRO records and they are unusually broad and square.

 

Additional note: "Joe Richardson" attempted to post a remark on this entry. He apparently cannot figure out the only way he shall be allowed to post on this blog is to get a new name. In this case the important point is that, once again, his comment has nothing to do with the information posted and is completely irrelevant and off-topic. I'm doing this for your own good, "Joe"-where does this blog entry even mention the topic that you wanted to argue against? Where do those words even appear here? NOW do you understand why I do not want you to post here any more?? Your remark is completely out of line and off the wall.

Dr Meldrum's Statement on Sykes Yeti DNA

From the Facebook page of Dr Don Jeffrey Meldrum:

Just to add my nickel's worth, in light of recent conversations with journalists --

My concern is that the results from examination of a single gene from only two hair samples, of potentially questionable origin, would be taken as the final resolution of the yeti question, which is a complex phenomenon. To the sherpas the yeti is the embodiment of the spirit of the mountains. That spirit can be manifested physically in various forms -- a bear, a man-like ape, a pilgrim. My examination of footprints attributed to the yeti clearly shows that many are indeed bear tracks. The famous mountaineer Rheinhold Messner developed the thesis that the yeti was a merely a bear, based largely on this ambiguity.

Dr. Syke's findings are interesting, and reinforce the role of bears in the phenomenon, but they do not conclusively answer the question of whether there is an unrecognized ape species in the Hamalayas. From my field of expertise -- footprints -- the best evidence for an unrecognized ape species comes from the McNeeley-Cronin biological survey of the Arun Valley. An exceptionally fresh and clear trackway of a bipedal ape was observed and documented. (see attachment depicting my reconstruction of the foot based on the track photos and plaster cast, which was seized at the border). It suggests an arboreal ape with a divergent big toe that clearly inhabits the high forested valleys and occasionally crosses the intervening passes leaving tracks in the snow.

The "yeti" has only to do with sasquatch in that it may be another relict species of primate, as yet unrecognized by science. Descriptions of sasquatch and their footprints are quite distinct.

Another Eastern Bigfoot (Ape) track cast Submitted to Jeffrey Meldrum

This photograph of a track cast was posted to Dr Don Jeffrey Meldrum's wall by the same individual who had contacted me earlier and claimed that this was the track of the "Eastern Bigfoot" (which would essentially equate the term also to "Wood Ape" or "Skunk Ape" in the same area, meaning that it would include both a more human type and a more apelike type, EXACTLY the same situation as the Orang Pendek or Batut)

This track shares the main flaws also associated with these tracks: the bottoms are all mostly level-flat with no anatomical hallmarks showing and the toes in particular seem to be "Jointless" (Noted by the SITU when such tracks started showing up in Pennsylvania in the 1970s) However this could easily be the effect of poor preservation (in one specific example, it was known that a rainstorm had washed over the tracks since they had been deposited)

Skunk Ape By Liza Phoenix, Easily One of The More Diagnostic Representations Of the Type

Yeti Hair DNA that of an Unknown species

My friend and frequent debating partner Paul Mead drew my attention to this matter on Facebook. It seems that believers in the existence of Yetis have some cause for rejoicing and justifiable excuse for lording it up over on the skeptics. One of the Cryptozoological discussion boards states the situation thusly:

"In 2008, Joshua Gates and his "Destination Truth" crew recovered a Yeti hair sample in Bhutan. The analysis reportedly came back as indicating 'an unknown DNA sequence.'

Fast forward 4 years later and now rumor has it that Dr. Melba Ketchum's DNA study will finally prove the existence of the Yeti in addition to Bigfoot.

According to Robert Lindsay:

'We have not been able to verify this rumor, but we have heard from several people that the Ketchum study also includes purported Yeti hair gathered by Josh Gates, apparently in Bhutan. We just heard it from someone very close to the study, so we think it is good.

The Yeti hair tested as no known animal, not human, unknown primate. Not only that, but the Yeti sample was actually close to the nearly 100 Bigfoot samples. So not only do Yetis exist, but they are closely related to Bigfoots. Some of us have always thought that Yetis were real, but lately, there has been a lot of skeptical research pouring cold water on the theory. The Wikipedia article on the subject says Yetis do not exist, and they are mythical.'

All of this has been very confusing to follow but I am glad that the DT Yeti hair is not part of this study and not associated with Ketchum's media circus. Although I would like to know what the eventual DNA results were of that hair.

Ketchum stated that she has been working with Bigfoot hair and tissue samples. I am sure that this story will change Yeti(yet) again as the saga continues."


There is good news here and bad news. The good news is that the Yeti hair has tested out as positively primate and unknown. The bad news is that coming from the source it does and in the context it does, the results cannot be trusted and in fact the analysis having been done by Ketchum actually hurts the case since her main study has been discredited.

However I am thinking that when Ketchum is out of the picture and this evidence is viewed again, This Yeti will turn out to be a valid unknown species and the same species as the North American Sasquatch. THIS Yeti is the Big Yeti of Heuvelmans, and the Dzu-Teh of Sanderson, the one that everybody agrees is likely to be a relict Gigantopithecus. Basically all we need is a new review of the evidence and that is already under way.

 

Paul Mead to Dale Drinnon on Facebook, 2 hours ago (5:20 PM July 2)
Dale, watched Josh Gate's program about the Yeti in Bhutan & the discovery of DNA from a large as yet unknown primate, surprised you haven't rubbed us the unbelievers noses in it

• Dale Drinnon I'm not the type that does that sort of thing (Blinking big blue eyes innocently). No I'll just bash you to kingdom come while the point is still an arguable issue.

  2 hours ago
• Paul Mead Dale, just joking, but surprised more wasn't made of this news at the time, unless of course, at a later date, the DNA was discovered to have come from the lesser spotted blue toed possum of the outer Himalayas!

  2 hours ago
• Dale Drinnon Part of the problem is that the sample was apparently sent to Melba Ketchum for analysis, and a lot of half-true statements were issued as a result (according to Robert Lindsay) And nobody knew what to do with it after that point. I actually don't know what I can say about the results myself (BTW to readers unfamiliar with the case, the DNA sample is from supposed Yeti hairs recovered in Bhutan in 2008)

  about an hour ago
• Dale Drinnon BTW there are no possums in the Himalayas. Lesser pandas are related to raccoons and you were probably making a reference to them

  about an hour ago
• Dale Drinnon One of the guys on one of the discussion boards said " I guess having possible proof of the existence of the Yeti is not a big deal after all. " and actually, I think that's about the size of it

  about an hour ago
• Paul Mead being totally facetious about the blue toed possum, interesting thought on the yeti, however, there will be no end to the debate, unless we discover to what group of animals it belongs - whether bear, orang-utan, unknown primate

  about an hour ago
• Dale Drinnon There remains the very important factor that "Yeti" is a generic term and does not definitely mean any one thing in particular. Switching over to a scientific term such as "Pongo sp" will make conversing about actual creatures something more concrete. As it is, you can say "Yeti" or "Bigfoot" or any comparable term and mean an unknown primate, a bear, or even a human being equally well in the ears of the listener. A most unsatisfactory arrangement!

  about an hour ago
• Dale Drinnon I realize you were being facetious about blue-toed possums, but that was a pertinent point about pandas and raccoons. In Biogeography you can have something like raccoons in the orient, but not possums, even though it is closer to Australia that way around. So you have more of a faunal continuity across Beringia than you do across Wallacea. (American possums evidently came up from South America) [This has a direct bearing on how reasonable it is to have the same species of Gigantopithecus in East Asia and in North America]

Jeff Meldrum, FOOTPRINT EVIDENCE OF THE CHINESE YEREN

The RELICT HOMINOID INQUIRY 1:57-66 (2012)

*Correspondence to: Jeff Meldrum. Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, 921 S. 8th Ave, Pocatello, ID 83209-8007, email: meldd@isu.edu. © RHI

Brief Communication

FOOTPRINT EVIDENCE OF THE CHINESE YEREN

Jeff Meldrum

1*, Zhou Guoxing2

1
Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, 921 S. 8th Ave, Pocatello, ID 83209; 2Beijing Museum of Natural History, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT.


The 1970’s saw a keen interest by the Chinese government in the "snowman question." A state-sponsored expedition was mounted to central China (Hubei Province) to investigate the possible presence of a correspondingly large bipedal hominid, referred to as the yeren, or wild man. In 1977, a team lead by Professor Zhou Guoxing gathered eyewitness accounts, hair samples, and footprints, but no specimen of yeren was retrieved. In 2008 the authors met at the Beijing Museum of Natural and proceeded to Hubei’s Shennongjia National Nature Reserve to interview witnesses, including a park ranger, Yuan Yuhao, who claimed to have observed a yeren in the reserve, at a distance of approximately 500 m. The site was at an elevation of approximately 2100 m in a mosaic of forest and sedge meadows. The yeren covered in reddish brown hair, was sunning itself. When Yuan called out, it rose and walked away bipedally. Yuan cast a clear pair of its footprints, which measured approximately 38 cm in length, 16.5 cm across the forefoot, and 10 cm across the heel. The footprints indicated a plantigrade, pentadactyl foot lacking evidence of claws. The hallux was larger than the lateral toes and non-divergent. A midtarsal pressure ridge indicated a significant degree of flexibility in the midfoot. In all distinguishing characteristics the casts resembled the ichnotaxon Anthropoidipes ameriborealis MELDRUM 2007. This evidence suggests independent corroboration of the existence of an unrecognized bipedal primate species with a circum-Pacific distribution.

KEY WORDS

: sasquatch, wildman, bipedal locomotion, midtarsal break

Numerous narratives of encounters with an unidentified bipedal hominid have been reported from central China, especially in Hubei Province (Fig. 1.). The Shennongjia region of Hubei Province comprises 3200 km
2 of montane forest, with an average elevation of over 2000 m (latitude 31.5o N, longitude 110.4o E). The region has long harbored legends of the yeren or wildman (Dong, 2000; Shackley, 1983; Zhou, 1982). These were given particular note in the 1970’s. One incident in 1976 involved five officials of the Regional Forestry Committee, who approached to within a few meters of the upright creature they described as covered in reddish brown hair, excepting the palms, soles, and relatively flat face showing a mixture of human-like and ape-like features. It reportedly walked upright, standing nearly 2 m in height, leaving large human-like footprints (Zhou, n.d.).

A large-scale sustained scientific expedition sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences was undertaken in the region in 1977. It was lead by Prof. Zhou Guoxing, Beijing Natural History Museum, and involved over 100 members, including soldiers in the Red Army (Fig. 2.). Local inhabitants were interviewed, the remote mountains were searched, and hair, footprints, and scat were recovered, but no specimen of 
yeren was obtained. DJ MELDRUM AND ZHOU GOUXING
58


Eyewitness descriptions yielded a consistent profile of a creature 2.0 - 2.5 m in height; generally upright; covered in reddish brown hair (but also, grey, brownish-yellow, black, or rarely white in color); human-shaped footprints measuring 30 - 40 cm in length, with the hallux sometimes somewhat abducted; females with prominent breasts; solitary; monotonous yelling call; omnivorous diet; lack of tools or material culture; and frequently nocturnal activity (Zhou, 1982).

In 2008, Meldrum met with Zhou at the Beijing Museum of Natural History and reviewed some of the evidence collected during the Shennongjia expeditions. They next proceeded to Hubei Province, where additional eyewitnesses were interviewed. Zhang Jiahong, a farmer near the village of Mu Yu, described an encounter with two
yeren while gathering medicinal herbs on September 15, 2005. He observed the hominoids from a distance of 15 m feeding on vegetation. They stood over 2 m tall, were entirely hair-covered, including the flat face, excepting the eyes and largo nose. He nervously coughed, alerting the yeren to his presence. They slowly retreated from the scene, remaining upright.

An identikit was provided, which included various photographs and depictions of bear and primates common to the region, various depictions of known great apes, artistic renderings of various hominins, and conceptions of the
yeren as well as the North American sasquatch. Zhang was impressed by the color of the orangutan hair, but assertively selected the rendering illustrated in Figure 3 as most similar to what he saw.

In Shennongjia National Nature Reserve a park ranger, Yuan Yuhao, was interviewed. Yuan, who had been a lay member of the original 1970s investigations (Schmalzer, 2008), claimed to have observed a
yeren in the reserve in 1995. He was on patrol climbing a slope near the head of a valley at an elevation of approximately 2100 m. The site is a mosaic of fir forest and sedge meadows. Yuan observed the yeren through binoculars at a distance of approximately 500 m. It was covered in reddish brown hair, reclining and sunning itself on the exposed facing slope. When Yuan called out to it, it returned his gaze and finally arose and walked away bipedally into the nearby treeline. Yuan estimated its height at 2.3 m. Yuan concurred with Zhang’s selection of the hominoid depiction in Figure 3. He subsequently tracked the creature and cast a clear pair of its footprints alongside a nearby spring.

The casts measure approximately 38 cm in length, 16.5 cm across the forefoot, and 10 cm across the heel (Fig. 4). The footprints indicate a plantigrade, pentadactyl foot lacking evidence of claws (Fig. 5). The hallux is larger than the lateral toes and non-divergent. A distinct midtarsal pressure ridge indicates a significant degree of flexibility in the midfoot. The deepest point on the cast lies on the medial margin just distal to the pressure ridge, apparently beneath the navicular. In all distinguishing characteristics the casts resemble footprint casts recovered at the Patterson-Gimlin film site at Bluff Creek, in northern California, 1967 (Figs. 6, 7).

Presumably the right and left footprints were left as the
yeren squatted beside the spring. This action would have elevated the hindfoot, concentrating pressure beneath the forefoot distal to the transverse tarsal joint. The plasticity of the moist bare soil resulted in the pressure ridge proximal to the transverse tarsal joint (Fig. 8).

The remarkable similarity of the midtarsal pressure ridge in the
yeren casts to that present in the example attributed to the sasquatch, i.e., referred to Anthropoidipes ameriborealis MELDRUM 2007 (Fig. 9, 10), denotes a common architecture of the foot, characterized by a flat flexible midfoot lacking a fixed longitudinal arch, and FOOTPRINT EVIDENCE OF THE CHINESE YEREN

59


retaining considerable mobility at the midtarsus (Meldrum, 2004; 2007).

The interpretation of this feature is further evidenced by the occurrence of "half tracks" (Fig. 11) in which only the forefoot leaves an impression, due to the elevated heel segment when running (Meldrum, 2004, 2006). The fixed longitudinal arch of the human foot is an adaptation for endurance running, loading the well-developed calcaneal tendon as an elastic storage mechanism. The track is abbreviated to the ball of the foot at the metatarsophalangeal joints. Lacking a fixed longitudinal arch, the
yeren (and sasquatch) foot collapses into flexion at the transverse tarsal joint when running, producing a "half-track."

The possibility remains that the footprint casts attributed to the
yeren were fabricated, however it should be noted that they originate from a time before that particular cast from the Bluff Creek site was widely publicized (Krantz, 1992); certainly before any discussions of its significance for a proposed model of midfoot flexibility (Meldrum, 2004). Therefore, the notable similarity in morphology between the yeren casts and the type and referred material of Anthropoidipes ameriborealis may provide independent corroboration of the footprint evidence for an unrecognized bipedal hominoid with a circum-Pacific distribution.

LITERATURE CITED

Dong P (2000)

China’s Major Mysteries. San Francisco: China Books and Periodicals, Inc.

Meldrum DJ (2004) Midfoot flexibility, fossil footprints, and sasquatch steps: New perspectives on the evolution of bipedalism.
J. Scientific Exploration 18:67-79.

Meldrum DJ (2006) Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.

Meldrum DJ (2007) Ichnotaxonomy of giant hominoid tracks in North America. In: Lucas SG, Spielman JA, Lockley MG, editors,
Cenozoic Vertebrate Tracks and Traces. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 42:225-231.

Shackley M (1983)
Still Living? The Yeti, Sasquatch and the Neanderthal Enigma. New York: Thames and Hudson.

Schmalzer S (2008) The People’s Peking Man: Popular Science and Human Identify in Twentieth-century China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Zhou G (n.d.) The investigation of Shennongjia "Wildman." The Institute of Paleoanthropology and Vertebrate Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Science. Unpublished Report (translated, 1979).

Zhou G (1982) The status of Wildman research in China.
Cryptozoology 1:13-23. DJ MELDRUM AND ZHOU GOUXING

60

Figure 1.

Satellite image of eastern Asia. Circle indicates region centered in Hubei Province, China, where numerous sightings of the yeren have been reported.

 

Figure 2

. Some expedition members with Professor Zhou Gouxing (front row, second from right). FOOTPRINT EVIDENCE OF THE CHINESE YEREN

61

Figure 3

. Eyewitnesses’ impression of the appearance of the yeren.

Figure 4.

Footprint casts of the yeren collected by Yuan Yuhao in the Shennongjia Reserve. DJ MELDRUM AND ZHOU GOUXING

62

Figure 5.

Distal view of the footprint casts illustrating the digits.

Figure 6.

Comparison of the yeren footprint casts with a cast from the Patterson-Gimlin film site (Bluff Creek, California) attributed to the sasquatch (center). FOOTPRINT EVIDENCE OF THE CHINESE YEREN

63

Figure 7.

Medial views of the yeren footprint cast (above) compared with the cast from the Patterson-Gimlin film site (Bluff Creek, California) attributed to the sasquatch (below). Note the similarity in the midtarsal pressure ridge in each footprint. DJ MELDRUM AND ZHOU GOUXING

64

Figure 8.

Inferred arrangement of the pedal skeleton and triceps surae in the yeren and sasquatch (left) as compared to the human (right) correlated with the presence or absence of the midtarsal pressure ridge (arrow). See text for discussion.

Figure 9.

Footprint casts from Bluff Creek, California, made by Roger Patterson October 1967, constituting the type of the ichnotaxon Anthropoidipes ameriborealis MELDRUM 2007.FOOTPRINT EVIDENCE OF THE CHINESE YEREN

65

Figure 10.

Footprint casts from the Patterson-Gimlin film site at Bluff Creek, California, made by Bob Timus in 1967, constituting the referred material of the ichnotaxon Anthropoidipes ameriborealis MELDRUM 2007. DJ MELDRUM AND ZHOU GOUXING

66

Figure 11.

Casts made by Meldrum in 1996 near Walla Walla, Washington, comparing a full- length footprint with a "halftrack" illustrating the flexibility at the transverse tarsal joint.