Bigfoot DNA; New Study Claims Genetic Evidence of Bigfoot : Offbeat : ENSTARZ

Tom Biscardi, CEO and founder of BIGFOOT Inc., holds up a picture he claims is the mouth of Bigfoot in Palo Alto, California, August 15, 2008. Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is a mythical ape-like creature said to live in forests of the Pacific northwest region of the United States. (Photo : Reuters)

The creature known as Bigfoot has remained elusive for people that say the beast is more than a figment of the imagination.

Now a new study claims that DNA evidence exists for the mythical creature.

According to DNA Diagnostics, a five-year study titled "Bigfoot' DNA Sequenced in Upcoming Genetics Study" claims that new evidence "confirms the existence of a novel hominin hybrid species, commonly called 'Bigfoot' or 'Sasquatch,' living in North America."

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The research study suggests that the elusive man-ape has genetic links to humans that go back to about 15,000 years ago with a yet to be identified species.

Dr. Melba S. Ketchum, veterinarian and team leader on the study, says that Bigfoot is a "hybrid species" and elaborated saying, "Our study has sequenced 20 whole mitochondrial genomes and utilized next generation sequencing to obtain 3 whole nuclear genomes from purported Sasquatch samples."

So is there actually any evidence?

So far none of the research has appeared in any peer-reviewed scientific publication, but if Ketchum's team is correct it could change our view of the mythical creature.

Meanwhile, the search for Bigfoot continues in a new way in Idaho where Jeffrey Meldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, received an approved proposal to take to the skies in a blimp to search for the ape-man. Even with the skepticism of his colleagues in the scientific community, Meldrum is trying to build a remote-controlled blimp that will use thermal-imaging cameras to find the beast.

"The challenge with any animal that is rare, solitary, nocturnal and far-ranging in habitat is to find them and observe them in the wild; this technology provides for that," Meldrum said, according to Reuters.

Meldrum's blimp search goes by the official title the Falcon Project, developed with help of William Barnes, a Utah man who claims to have seen Bigfoot in California in 1997. Meldrum and Barnes are working toward getting the blimp in the air by next spring for what will be a months-long search over the Pacific Northwest, California and Utah.