Professor: Evidence points to Bigfoot’s existence

By Steven Wyblenews3@yelmonline.com |0 comments

It seemed like most of the about 50 people at the Triad Theater last Thursday either believed or wanted to believe.

Believe in what?

Bigfoot. Sasquatch. The “abominable snowmen of America.” Take your pick.

But for Idaho State University Professor Jeffrey Meldrum, Ph.D., who the spectators came to see, Bigfoot is a scientific mystery, not a matter of belief.

Meldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology and an expert on foot morphology and locomotion in primates, explained his approach to scientifically documenting the perhaps not-so-mythical creature most famously known as Bigfoot.

“One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in order to involve myself in a professional capacity is to translate the perception of this topic from the tabloid squarely into the realm of biological science,” Meldrum told the audience. “The approach I take as an anatomist and a physical anthropologist, is the fundamental question: Is there a species of large bipedal upright primate in North America behind the legend of sasquatch?”

Meldrum said that while his personal belief has no bearing in a scientific investigation into Bigfoot’s existence, the evidence he’s studied has left him convinced an unknown species of animal exists in North America.

He first began studying that evidence in 1996, he said, when he had the opportunity to observe fresh tracks, purportedly left by a Bigfoot, in Southwest Washington.

He was well-versed in comparing the anatomy and “functional morphology” of primate feet, from small monkeys to the fossilized skeletons of extinct hominids, he said.

Meldrum used that background to analyze the tracks, and a bump in the middle of one track led him to believe the foot possessed a “midtarsal break”— a flexible break in the middle of the feet of primates like chimpanzees that allows them to grasp branches as they climb through trees.

In some of the tracks, only the forward part of the foot left an impression on the ground. This also suggested a foot far more flexible than a human’s, Meldrum said.

Continued