A Texas veterinarian-researcher claims to have shown that the elusive creature known as Bigfootor Sasquatch is a human hybrid, descended from human females who mated with males of “an unknown hominin species.” In a statement released on Saturday, Melba S. Ketchum said that her conclusions emerged after she sequenced samples of purported Sasquatch DNA. Mitochondrial DNA in the samples, which offspring inherit from their mothers, was identical to modern human mitochondrial DNA, she said. But the nuclear DNA samples — the genetic blueprint that mixes genetic material from both parents — appeared to be a mix between human nuclear DNA and “novel non-human sequence.” “Genetically, the Sasquatch are a human hybrid with unambiguously modern human maternal ancestry,” Ketchum said in the statement. But many others weren’t yet convinced. A few of their reasons: This is Bigfoot we’re talking about, a creature that has never definitively been observed, despite decades (centuries?) of reported sightings. Over the years, Los Angeles Times reporters Kim Murphy and Eric Bailey both wrote about scientific and not-so-scientific searches for the possibly mythical man-beast. A related problem: As no one has yet seen or captured or exhumed a Sasquatch, many question whether Ketchum’s samples actually came from such an animal. Ketchum’s statement did not describe where she got her DNA samples. Read more http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-sasquatch-dna-20121127,0,1180891.story
