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I have no scientific basis whatsoever for this postulation, but I have seen too many times evidence of what I'll call "genetic memory," for lack of a better term. Kids I grew up with - sons who seemed to suddenly have the skills or basic intuition of their parent. A master mechanic - and the son even as a kid, is a masterful mechanic - with understandings far beyond his years. Another who never ever delved in music - too busy being a kid - one day picks up a guitar and in a month is playing it like he's been doing it for years. Moves to a piano, and same thing. Just phenomenal. We as a species - overall (not necessarily every single one of us) has a fair fear of things unseen but heard in the dark. We as a group are comforted by a fire which provides more benefit that just the heat alone. I've been surprised to learn that Native Americans have many legends about outright "wars" with the hairy men. Same stories are found in Europe, and in the Nordic legends - Beowulf being one of those stories. We humans don't like threats. You scare us, you worry us, you concern us, and we'll get together, hunt you down, and kill you. Man or animal - we'll gang up on you and hunt you down. Of course, these are legends. Myths. Stories. But more and more, I start to appreciate that multiple stories, from multiple sources, from different continents, at different eras - may be describing more of events, and less imagination. If there have been outright "wars" in the past between men and Critters - and throw in diseases that men brought to North America - Critters may have not only a genetic memory of past dangers provided by men, but they may know of occasional hunters shooting and wounding - if not killing some of their kind and have learned that men are as a general rule - best left alone. Avoided. Especially those who carry rifles.

There are always two sides to the story. Did the Native Americans offend the bigfoot first to make them mean? When hunting they may have shot bigfoots with arrows to scare them off. Then later the bigfoots kidnap villagers as a form of revenge. We may never know unless more stories can be compiled to see if a pattern forms. Did the bigfoots constantly bug the Native Americans so the tribe retaliated and shot up the bigfoots with arrows? The Chehalis Indians reported bigoots stealing Salmon from the drying racks. http://www.prairieghosts.com/bigfoot_walks.html :The Inuit Indians of the region called the creature by various names, including Wendigo, Witigo, Witiko and Wee-Tee-Go but each of them was roughly translated to mean "the evil spirit that devours mankind". Around 1860, a German explorer translated Wendigo to mean "cannibal" among the tribes along the Great Lakes. Even into the last century, Native Americans actively believed in, and searched for, the Wendigo. One of the most famous Wendigo hunters was a Cree Indian named Jack Fiddler. He claimed to kill at least 14 of the creatures in his lifetime, although the last murder resulted in his imprisonment at the age of 87. read more from the web page.

Social construct? That was the ugliest, fastest, biggest *********** social construct EVER!

Next time I have BF contact I will explain to them that they implausible and a social construct. Wonder if knowing that will make the bigfoot disappear from my photograph? Earth calling skeptics, people here have seen them!

This is pointed at me obviously, but unfortunately it makes no sense.You can make fun of me for not having a physical encounter and you can think Im a greedy evil person for shooting one if I ever do have an encounter. Your entitled to your opinion, so be it. But unfortunately for you and I and every other proponent? Ketchum's failure had nothing to do with human greed and everything to do with human incompetence. And it doesnt help her cause that on top of her incompetence she seems to be involved in some way in the matilda hoax. And she is also now a proponent in Dogmen and Alien Hybrids (south american skull enlongations). Its not science that she is doing, it must be either fame recognition that drives her as DNA studies on farm animals must have become tedious and boring OR she has always held a fascination for fringe science and has now decided to indulge her self completely...... I just want the truth. I think her study could have gone differently for sure, especially if she hadn't needed nuclear DNA to start with. Better study of the hair morphology could have eliminated bear samples up front. I sure thought that a mixture of genomes would assemble themselves separately in next generation technology, but apparently that's not the case. She took in hundreds of samples from across this community, but absolutely no nonhuman ape DNA arose from it in the mitochondrial, maternal lineages. That's what should concern you, that all those serious enough to look for samples, has already failed to find your patty. The nuclear DNA persuit started at the Y chromosome and had many failures, with some potentially attributed to drastic differences in the genome leading to failure of the primers. That's why the whole nuclear genomes were done and the scant availability of viable samples containing nuDna forced poor choices in sample selection. Its drastically different because its human contaminated Bear hair, Raccoon hair, whatever. What she is proposing is impossible within evolution. And either its over her pay grade to understand or she is ignoring it to become famous. Hoping that she could float the boat in the lime light for as long as possible.Think on this, if her crummy paper was trying to classify a new species of tree frog? None of us would have ever heard of her. Chimps are 98% human genetically, so the DNA , if from a bigfoot will be closer than that with all their human like physical form. Ketchum could be easily right, without the proof. Not that bigfoot is a man bear, but that they are a wildman, as she proposed they are. Ain't it funny how easily you forget that?

Melba Ketchum believes in Dogmen.....Werewolves......two legged giant Canids. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_6UQP4xq024 Who here still takes her DNA study seriously?

Todd Disotell reviewed the paper.....and stated that the study was not worth the paper it was printed on. No scientific break down here. Its just that some people dont like the F the paper received, so that must mean conspiracy.

Ding,ding,ding......we have a winner! With that said, we need to keep trying with DNA and not give up.

There is no such thing as puggymonkeybaby!!! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ql7uY36-LwA The last sentence says it all...."contrary with evolutionary biology". Its plain ole shoddy work!

No, there was no denial just rejection based on what she is claiming is impossible, as well as her data doesnt even support what she is claiming. She is a quack. I really really cannot believe you guys are still holding on to this. We were duped let it go! I remained optimistic for a long time too, but those days are long gone. She still has Matilda on the front page of her website. Bill Munns debunked it as a Star Wars Chewbacca mask!!! At least Todd Standings hoaxes were original!

http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/the_ketchum_project_what_to_believe_about_bigfoot_dna_science The Paper Appears On February 12, 2013, Ketchum commented on social media outlets “Buckle up!†and the next day, the paper appeared along with a new press release.49 The study, “Novel North American Homi­­­nins, Next Generation Sequencing of Three Whole Genomes and Associated Studies,†which analyzed DNA from a total of 111 high-quality samples submitted from across the continent, appeared in the inaugural issue of DeNovo: Journal of Science (http://www.denovojournal.com) of Febru­ary 13. The coauthors were: Ketchum, P.W. Wojtkiewicz, A.B. Watts, D.W. Spence, A.K. Holzenburg, D.G. Toler, T.M. Prychitko, F. Zhang, S. Bollinger, R. Shoulders, and R. Smith. The paper describes the conclusion stated earlier in the November pre-paper press release, that both the mitochondrial and nuclear DNA were sequenced. The mitochondrial DNA, inherited from the maternal side, was human. But the nuclear DNA was not. This consisted of a “structural mosaic†of “human and novel non-human DNA.†Upon attempting to access the paper the morning it appeared, I encountered the next huge misstep by Ketchum. The journal, DeNovo, is a brand-new online outlet that consists of one issue with only this one paper. The website is clunky and amateurishly designed with stock “sciencey†photos of animals and test tubes. A strangely placed “buy now†button was in the center yet on one page, the words “DeNovo – Open Access†floats in a blank box. For a moment, I did think the paper was freely available. Not so. Clicking on the buy now button, I was taken to a checkout page that charged $30 for access. Backing out of the site to look for other reactions, I noticed that several Bigfoot bloggers had already obtained complimentary copies or they had managed to download the paper for free care of a site glitch. I requested, through email to the address in the press release, a complimentary press copy as well. This inquiry went unanswered. I was provided two review versions of the paper later in the day via other means. Regarding the origins of DeNovo, Ketchum said on the day of the paper re­lease that an unnamed journal had accepted the paper after peer review was completed, but their lawyers advised them not to publish due to the disreputable topic. Instead of continuing to shop the paper to other sources, she decided to acquire the rights to this unnamed journal,50 suspected to be the Journal of Ad­vanced Multi­disciplinary Exploration in Zoology. Looking into the history of that journal, investigators found it was registered under Ketchum’s name on January 9, 2013. This led to serious ethical questions about self-publishing.50 The DeNovo website was created on Febru­ary 4, 2013, just nine days prior to the release of the paper. Ketchum claims to have documentation of the prior reviews and from the acquisition of the new journal. These, and any information on which journals previously rejected the paper, have not yet been released. In the announcement of the paper,51 Ketchum mentioned two associated websites: the Sasquatch Genome Project and the Global Sasquatch Foundation. Both were produced with what appeared to be very basic web tools and hosted on low-volume servers. Both sites failed the first day possibly due to traffic. Prior to their inaccessibility, I captured some information published on them. On the Sasquatch Genome Project page, Ketchum denied she self-published and took a dig at the scientific community. “We encountered the worst scientific bias in the peer review process in recent history,†she said, calling it the “Galileo Effect†and suggesting she was treated unfairly. Ketchum’s explanation for publishing in DeNovo was that she was eager to get the data out there and not have to deal with further rejections, hinting that all the previous reviewers were less than decent or open-minded seemingly because they rejected her work.50 On the Global Sasquatch Foundation site, this statement appeared: “Due to the efforts of our founder Dr. Melba Ketchum it has been proven that Sasquatch are a human hybrid. Here at G.S.F. we have made it a priority to protect these indigenous people from being hunted, harassed, or even killed.†One could assert that this statement was premature considering the scientific community had not assessed her conclusion. Regardless, she had extreme confidence in her results. The Foundation site also included pictures of stick structures supposedly constructed by the creatures and a photo of a matted horse’s mane, an example of what Ketchum has alleged is Sasquatch “braids†in the horse’s mane.50 As for the paper itself, it was incomprehensible to those without specialized training in genomics or forensics. It began with the premise that Sasquatch exists and this study helps to confirm that. Two days later, Ketchum announced through social media that (unnamed) “top level scientists†volunteered to assess her data. A few days after, a statement appeared on the DeNovo website from David H. Swenson, a biochemist, who said he reviewed the manuscript and agrees with the conclusions. This statement, as well as Ketchum’s own statements and those of her spokesperson were also riddled with grammatical and typographical errors.52 The few experienced geneticists who viewed the paper reported a dismal opinion of it noting it made little sense.53 The DNA sequences did indeed contain matches to human chromosome 11, a lot of undetermined DNA, and some that, in part, matched to other animals. Thus, the whole sequences do not resemble any known animal and are contradictory with evolutionary biology. In a curious sidenote, the term de novo is used in bioinformatics to designate the absence of a reference genome. Next generation sequencing (NGS) technology was used in this study to read the whole genome, a process that used to be far more time and labor-intensive. There are problems with NGS de novo protocols that can lead to poor data quality. We do not know if the results were properly evaluated prior to concluding that the genome data could be used and if the interpretation of the results is reasonable. These factors will likely come into play during the expert external reviews of the paper. Some critics have stated that the DNA may have been contaminated. Ketchum assures everyone that she fully accounted for contamination issues and dismisses this allegation, citing her own the lab’s experience with handling forensic crime samples. The samples have not been made available to others so there is currently no way for anyone to run a retest to compare results. There appear to be multiple places where the data quality could have been compromised, regardless of how confident Ketchum is in her results. The Circus That Followed Accompanying the official version of the paper was Erickson’s video, which supposedly showed a sleeping Sasquatch. The short clip, made public a day later, showed a brown, furry mass sleeping on a woodland floor. The Erickson project claimed that DNA was obtained from this individual, named Matilda, which was analyzed as part of the Ketchum study providing a link to a real creature. The promised high-definition video evidence was not made available. Within a week, researcher Bill Munns claimed that he had acquired still shots of Matilda whereby the face strongly resembled Chewbacca, a tall, hairy Bigfoot-esque creature from the Star Wars movies.54 If that wasn’t enough to increase the derision for Ketchum’s work, what may be the most humiliating find came from careful readers on a skeptical forum.55 Three of the references cited in the Ketchum paper as prior published research on the creatures were discovered to be questionable in validity. One was an openly-stated April Fools prank that concluded the Yeti was actually an ungulate (hoofed mammal) and that its resemblance to apes was due to convergent evolution. When confronted with this information, Ketchum denied responsibility, saying she was told to include “all†references by one reviewer. She did not concede that she knew they weren’t reputable scientific works. So what does Ketchum have? Is it human DNA with an undocumented variation? Is it animal samples contaminated with human DNA or vice versa? Is it a concocted hoax? Or is it actual unique DNA that may point to the existence of an unknown hominin (or two)? In a revealing interview on Coast to Coast AM she told the public she is not after glory, would rather avoid the publicity, and has turned down (others’) money-making offers. She admitted that she wouldn’t tackle this project if given another chance due to the trouble it created for her. She admits she was not privy to the culture of Sasquatchery that exists where many players try to either one-up or discredit the other person. She is solidly convinced that she has enough data to unquestionably make the case for the existence of Bigfoot even without a type specimen. In the Coast to Coast AM conversation, she likened them to “special forces soldiers†who cannot be seen unless they want to be. She has completely accepted that they exist across North America and wishes them to be protected as a tribe of people.4,50 Her research continues. In the presentation of this potentially earth-shaking discovery, Dr. Ketchum lost every shred of scientific credibility through her short-circuiting genetic experts and the process of peer review. Instead, she at­tempted to appeal to the popular Bigfoot enthusiast crowd as their savior who has the goods. Even that backfired. She continues to make excuses instead of admitting her errors and poor judgment. She censors those who point out these serious problems or ask questions about them, and she has not exhibited cooperation with geneticists who are experts in human DNA. The people supporting her are not usually helpful to her cause. Her disclosures about her own personal sightings and obvious missteps in the process have done much to sabotage her own credibility. It’s not a pleasant picture. ========================================================= Melba Ketchum is a joke, her phony DNA study paper is a joke, her fake peer reviewed journal DeNovo is a joke, Matilda and the Erickson project is a joke, her DNA findings are a joke and do not follow reality. And finally? Anyone and everyone in the scientific community involved in Primate genetics thinks she is a joke. Did I miss anything? Can we stick a fork in this now? How is Ketchum any different than Todd Standing? Muppet head versus Chewie mask!

I just sent off for my DNA kit, from ancestory.com My buddy and his wife did it, and they can tell you within one percent of which homo sapiens, where on earth you were spawned from. They also know Europeans and Asians have 1-4 % Homo Neanderthal DNA. They also know that specific Asians have 1-4% Denisovian DNA. And yet Mrs. Ketchum's DNA study reveals Sasquatch is modern human, except its a hybrid, with 50% of its DNA is crossed with man/bear/pig..... like 2000 years ago. It's goobliegawk. No serious geneticist in the scientific field has stood up and said "Hey this Dr. Ketchum is really on to something here!" No. And why is that!? I guess its because the government is silencing the truth right? It cannot be that Dr. Ketchum is a quack and is flinging poo at the wall hoping something will stick? Your right Southern Yahoo, DNA has the last word in science. But science also has the last word on DNA too Patty besides having large breasts looks masculine to you the same way a female gorilla looks masculine to you. Its a seperate primate species that has a more archaic morphology than modern humans do.

Patty's morphology is not human, I challenge anyone to show me a homo sapien female that is a match for her. Which means if ketchums DNA is coming back 100 % human? Either something is wrong with her study or the PGF is a hoax. Speaking of hoaxes? Is she still backing Matilda aka the Chewbacca suit? How is it that Ketchum can say they are human? When in star wars, chewie represents its own species? Morphologicaly speaking nothing jives.