Monsters and Myths

The shots were captured by night guard Yalcin Yalman in a compound in Turkey earlier this year.

The 42-year-old and a number of residents claim the UFOs were spotted over a four month period between May and September near the compound in Istanbul.

He said: “I don’t know what these things are. We filmed them several times and they are totally unknown to us. I was very excited when I saw them and I want the world to know that UFOs do exist”.

Almost two-and-a-half hours of footage was filmed featuring a variety of objects ranging from incredible flying saucer-type ‘craft’ to clustering orb-like lights hovering in the night sky.

Genuine

The clips were handed to the Sirius UFO Space Science Research Centre in Turkey who interviewed witnesses and painstakingly combed through the footage frame by frame.

International UFO researcher Haktan Akdogan said: “In this amazing video footage, physical forms of UFOs and their metallic structures are clearly noticeable.

“What is more important is that in the close-up of some footages of the objects, entities in them can be distinctly made out.”

He continues: “We have spoken with all of the witnesses and had detailed analysis conducted on all two-and-a-half hours of footage.

“After conducting all of the analysis we came to the conclusion that this video footage is 100 per cent genuine.

“The objects filmed are structured objects and are not the result of misidentification or natural phenomena, aircraft or astronomical objects.

“They are not the results either of any kind of computer animation. Now is it a time for world governments to acknowledge the reality of UFOs.”

He added: “The images captured on film are expected to have a tremendous impact throughout the world and they are the most important UFO images ever caught on camera.”

The footage will be revealed at the UFO Data Magazine annual conference in Pontefract, West Yorks, on October 25.

And it has earned the seal of approval from British experts.

UFO Data Magazine editor Russell Callaghan said: “This video footage from Turkey, if authentic, represents a serious challenge to science. I can honestly say that this footage is truly unique.”

thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/ufos/article1836403.ece

(Recently read  “Sasquatch : Legend meets science” , and wanted to post this article so everyone else could get an overview of it and its author. It is very interesting and offers some great information.)

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It is not a matter of believing in Bigfoot, but it’s using scientific evidence to prove his existence, Jeff Meldrum, author of “Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science,” said Tuesday to Robert Schmidt’s ENVS 3600 class.

“Its very difficult in 45 minutes to give you a comprehensive package of the evidence that has motivated me to persist in this investigation. That is what this is, an investigation. It’s not me trying to convince you that Bigfoot exists,” said Meldrum, who works in the Department of Biological Science at Idaho State University.

Schmidt, an associate professor for the department of environment and society, said, “How do we assess the evidence for Sasquatch, or the Bear Lake Monster, or even the Loch Ness monster? Science gives us the tools for looking at the validity of the evidence.”

Meldrum said folklore, prehistoric evidence and aspects of history convey the intrigue of the possibility of an unknown animal such as Bigfoot.

“Belief has no role as a scientific question. The question boils down to is there evidence for a biological species known as Sasquatch,” he said.

Ever since there have been travelers, there have been tales of fanciful, even somewhat unbelievable animals, Meldrum said. He related the idea of describing a giraffe to someone who didn’t know about giraffe and how unbelievable that would seem. Similarly, Bigfoot may seem far-fetched when all people hear are stories, he said.

Meldrum said the earliest recorded story about Bigfoot is the “Epic of Gilgamsh.” He said that story and “Beowulf” both have accounts of a hairy wild man, which he said could be early accounts of Bigfoot.

He showed pictures of masks, tribal statues and paintings from different centuries and cultures, and he pointed out the possible correlations to primates and Bigfoot and the differences between both. He said depictions of a creature with very big, human-like hands and feet were showing up in various styles of pictographs.

“No history is without myth. No myth is without history,” Meldrum said.

Sometimes stories were told to serve as a warning to children to not stay out late because of the dangers in the woods, he said.

“Are these just boogie man stories? Are these just things the natives tell their kids to keep them in line?” Meldrum asked. “Are these just stories or do they have some thread of truth?”

Meldrum showed possible Bigfoot footprint casts and showed the differences in what are believed to be real and fabricated prints. The evidence in the footprints is what he said he finds most compelling.

He discussed the realities of the video recording of Bigfoot walking into the woods and said even though people have come out and said they were in a Bigfoot suit, the reality is the body proportions just don’t match up for it to be a human in a costume.

Meldrum told the students at lunch after the lecture that he became interested in Bigfoot as a young boy. He said it was when the video of Bigfoot walking in the woods emerged that he became curious about Bigfoot. That curiosity developed more in later years as his study of science and primates slowly turned into a study of Bigfoot, Meldrum said. He continues his research on Bigfoot and the evidences to support his theory, he said.

utahstatesman.com/campus_news/1.557700

Taking the stance that Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Oh-Mah, whatever you wish to call the classic Neo-Giants of the Pacific Northwest, do exist, what fossil candidate fits best with the reportedly upright, hairy, 6 feet to 8.5 feet tall forest giants of North America?

Everyone seems to be Gigantopithecus lovers, right? But what of the other major fossil choice, Paranthropus?

The general scientific agreement is that Gigantopithecus specimens were in the range of about 10 feet tall, in fully grown adults. Some of the fossil primate scholars most linked to Gigantopithecus even have interpretations that assume Gigantopithecus was not bipedal.

Other than mandibles and over a thousand teeth, no other bones of Gigantopithecus have been found. Despite this, the late Grover Krantz and others have constantly said that Gigantopithecus is the best fossil candidate for Sasquatch. The one major fossil candidate often overlooked by the Krantz camp is Paranthropus.

The other favored fossil affinity for Bigfoot was proposed in 1971 by Gordon Strasenburgh, who wrote of his theory in scientific journals, self-published booklets, and through correspondence with other cryptozoologists. Strasenburgh thought Bigfoot would be found to be related to Paranthropus robustus and suggested that the name Paranthropus eldurrelli be used for the Bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest.

Paranthropus is a fossil hominid genus initially assigned by Robert Broom to a robust form of australopithecine found at Kromdraai and Swartkrans in South Africa. One of the most famous Paranthropus species is boisei, discovered by Mary Leakey in 1959 at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. It is known for its massive jaw muscles and huge back teeth the size of quarters that inspired the nickname “Nutcracker Man.”

The evidence gathered to date suggests the Neo-Giants could very well be Paranthropus. In Neo-Giants, as in primates that have large jaws and well-developed chewing muscles (e.g., gorillas and baboons), the skull’s parietal bones continues upward at the midline to form a sagittal crest. The early fossil evidence shows that Paranthropus of both genders exhibited a sagittal crest–a feature that provides a very strong link to the male and female Neo-Giants seen today.

In Southeast Asia, during the 1940s, paleoanthropologists Franz Weidenreich and Ralph von Koenigswald found evidence, generally ignored by anthropologists, that Gigantopithecus (the very strong and enormous anthropoid ape), Meganthropus palaeojavanicus (the great man of ancient Java, which some see as an example of Paranthropus), and two different species or subspecies of Homo erectus (namely the so-called Java apeman and the Peking man), all lived at the same time.

Then in 1996, Carl C. Swisher III of the Berkeley Geochronology Center found new data indicating that Homo erectus had indeed lived in Java at the same time as Homo sapiens, the modern human. Using new techniques to date fossils found at Solo River, Java, Swisher’s team concluded that the supposedly very much older species known as Homo erectus had actually lived in Java as recently as 53,000 to 27,000 years ago. This was earth-shaking news to anthropologists who had assumed a much older date for Homo erectus.

Also in 1996, researchers lead by Russell Ciochon and Vu The Long discussed the apparent co-occurrence of Homo erectus and Gigantopithecus blacki in Tham Khuyen Cave, Vietnam. This giant ape was contemporaneous with archaic humans throughout its range from six million to 300,000 years ago. That is quite a long and successful span of coexistence, and Gigantopithecus must have been a formidable “neighbor”–a true giant on the landscape of the world with the little near-humans and humans like so many troublesome distant cousins breeding furiously and taking up living space.

So this is what we know. Apes, near-humans, and humans lived at the same time, probably just as they continue to today. And gorillas and various other great apes, and such fossil species as Paranthropus show sagittal crests in females as well as males. Krantz’s reconstruction of Gigantopithecus with a sagittal crest is only logical based on the massive mandibles that have been discovered, which show evidence of heavy chewing probably taking place. Also Krantz, no doubt, added them too because he considered the Sasquatch his living model. But, of course, we don’t really know if Gigantopithecus had sagittal crests. We do, however, clearly know that Paranthropus did have these crests, as we have fossils with them on the top of the skulls.

Among various problems I have with Gigantopithecus, therefore, is the very large size of this ape, which would have put them at the extreme end of any Bigfoot heights recorded in sightings that most people studying these cryptids would consider valid. Paranthropus, at between 5.5 plus, and maybe evolving to 7.5 feet, with known sagittal crests, I sense, is a more plausible fossil candidate for the classic PNW Bigfoot, the Neo-Giants. The case is straightforward for me. It seems unfortunate that people have spent a lot of time studying the few bones of Gigantopithecus as the “celebrity big fossil ape,” when more attention might be usefully devoted examining Paranthropus.

For those interested in the question of Paranthropus, I recommend an article:

Clarke, Ronald J. “The Genus Paranthropus: What’s in a Name?” in W. E. Meikle, F. C. Howell, and N. G. Jablonski (eds) Contemporary Issues in Human Evolution (San Francisco: California Academy of Sciences, 1996) Memoir 21, pages 93-104.

Clarke talks about the use of the name Paranthropus and the generic separation it denotes as having “well-known and long-standing support.” Indeed, he writes that “the name Paranthropus has been alive and well and supported by zoologically sound credentials. It is certainly welcome news that more human anatomists and physical anthropologists are coming to the belated realization that Paranthropus merits generic distinction, but it is to the zoologist John Robinson that credit must be given for not only recognizing this from the outset, but also for his many clear explanations of why this was so.”

Paranthropus is a unique, intriguing-looking primate which fills the bill for what the Pacific Northwest Bigfoot has been and is. The African Paranthropus has been associated to the Asian Meganthropus, which appears to be linked to the American Sasquatch.

What do you think?

cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/giganto-plus/

Footprints from the legendary Yeti have been found in the snow-covered slopes of the Himalayas, a Japanese team of explorers claimed today.

The adventurers could hardly contain their excitement as they told of finding the 8in-long footprints which bore a close resemblance to those of humans.

But, said team leader Yoshiteru Takahashi, they were not human - neither were they the footprints of wolves, deer or snow leopards.

‘They were made by the Yeti, we believe,’ said Mr Takahashi, who heads the Yeti Project Japan, after returning from the mountains to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.

Stories of the Yeti - also known as the Abominable Snowman - have been passed down through generations of Nepalese families whose ancestors have told of a half-man, half ape, living in the Himalayas, where the world’s tallest mountain, Mt Everest, is located.

The scientific community has mostly discounted the stories, saying they are more myth than fact, but Mr Takahashi is convinced the ‘creature’ exists.

If so, it would be very old, for it was first described in 1832 by Englishman James Prinsep who told of his local guides spotting a tall, bipedal creature covered with long dark hair.

Mr Takahashi also claims to have seen a Yeti when he went to the Himalayas in 2003. On that expedition he was 200 yards away from the apparition but remains convinced he was not mistaken.

‘It was in silhouette,’ he said. ‘It was walking on two legs like a human and looked about 150 centimeters (5ft) tall.’ Now, finding strange footprints in the snow on his most recent expedition, has left Mr Takahashi convinced that the Yeti is still wandering among the towering Himalayan peaks.

‘We have no doubt about what we have found. This makes us certain that the Yeti exists. As well as the footprints, the stories the locals tell makes us sure that this being is not imaginary.’

Despite spending 42 days on Dhaulagiri IV - a 25,135ft peak where Mr Takahashi says he has seen the shadowy figure in the past - the seven- man team has failed in their prime objective of capturing a Yeti on film.

‘We set up nine motion-sensitive cameras in the area where I first saw what I believed was it, but we have not got any images.

‘But we’ll be coming back as soon as we can - and we’ll keep coming back until we get the Yeti on film, and then all doubt will vanish.’

Following the first record of a Yeti by James Prinsep, other explorers have also written of the strange creature.

In 1921 explorer Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Howard-Bury told of finding footprints he believed had been made by a large wolf, although they gave the impression of being made by a bare-footed man.

The yeti, also known as the abominable snowman, is an ape-like creature said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal and Tibet.

The names yeti and meh-teh are commonly used by the people indigenous to the region, and are part of their history and mythology.

The yeti can be considered a Himalayan parallel to the Bigfoot legend of North America.

His Sherpa guides told him, however, that the tracks must have been made by ‘The Wild Man of the Snows’.

In 1954, the Daily Mail reported the discovery of hair specimens from what was said to be the scalp of a Yeti. Professor Frederick Woods Jones, an expert in human and comparative anatomy, failed to reach a conclusion, but said the dark brown hair was not from a bear or an anthropoid (manlike) ape.

Alleged sightings and debate has continued through the decades - but so far no-one has been able to produce a clear, definitive photograph of the world’s most elusive being.

If it exists at all.

dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1079091/

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Things seemed a little hairy over at Jefferson High School Saturday, and it wasn’t because of the Bulldogs’ shut-out of Queen City Friday night.

Skeptics and believers from around the country, gathered at the 2008 Texas Bigfoot Conference to listen to experts discuss the possibility of Bigfoot, the legendary giant, hairy beast that has reportedly been sighted all over the world.

Visitors and Bigfoot experts alike were greeted with smiles by vendors at the event organized by the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy.

Archaeologist Kathy Strain was on hand with her new book, “Giants, Cannibals & Monsters,” as was Roberts Swain with top-notch Bigfoot cartoon artwork and many others.

Jefferson High School students lent a hand by organizing a raffle to benefit their prom and providing lunches and snacks to benefit other school goals.

“I’m just here to enjoy the show,” said Susanne Elleman, who made the drive from Oklahoma. Ms. Elleman thinks Bigfoot’s existence is possible.

“It may exist, it may not, but it’s pretty interesting stuff,” she said.

In the scientific community, Bigfoot’s existence would mean that an ape was native to North America, according to Alton Higgins, a biology professor at Mid-America Christian University in Oklahoma City, Okla.

Though no DNA of such an animal has ever been produced, Higgins said, word-of-mouth, footprints, photographs and film provide evidence for the creature’s existence.

“I’m not aware of any DNA evidence. There have been lots of attempts at it, but they’ve come up with results that are too fragmentary to really be of any good,” he said.

Higgins’ presentation focused on image analysis to disprove costumes, hoaxes and misidentifications. Costumes will have a tubular look with wrinkles and baggy lower legs, unlike the muscular appearance of apes.

He said Bigfoot would have arm-leg symmetry, unlike some photos that show the creature with very long arms.

“Most of the stuff that we see doesn’t turn out to be credible,” Higgins said during his presentation.

The most famous film evidence, he said, is the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin Film. “There are several other possible film or video examples of evidence, but none of them are really conclusive,” he said.

The film can be seen on YouTube.com, and shows an ape-like creature walking through a stream.

The creature walks upright like a man and has the mannerisms of a human being.

“I’m 100 percent convinced it exists,” Higgins said. “I’ve found tracks myself. I have a sighting of a creature that I can’t explain as being any other animal.

“I’m a wildlife biologist. This is what I used to do for a living. I’m a biology professor now, but I’ve had a sighting of what I thought was a huge, upright, ape-like creature,” he said.

Other Bigfoot evidence came from TRBC researcher Daryl Colyer’s discussion of the conservancy’s sighting database.

The database lists what the TBRC considers viable sightings and are marked on a map of the Ark-La-Tex-Oma region.

Colyer said the range of reported sightings changes seasonally.

In the hotter months, the sightings are closer together in the shade of the woods and spread out during the colder months.

The conference also included discussions by author and researcher David Paulides, forensic artist Harvey Pratt, Dana Holyfield, Ms. Strain, Swain and Sasquatch behavioral expert Dr. Henner Fahrenbach.

A fund-raising dinner featuring Dr. Jeff Meldrum concluded the annual conference.

Meldrum discussed his recent expedition to China in search of the Yeren, the Chinese culture’s version of the Bigfoot legend.

marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/

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A NEW sighting of South America’s ‘creepy gnome’ has caused panic among locals after a group of youngsters claimed a ‘midget monster’ ran towards them at night.

The teens – who recorded footage of the freaky being on their mobile phone – said they are now “too terrified” to go out at night.

Experts who examined the latest footage, taken in the town of Clodomira, province of Santiago del Estero, Argentina, last week, say it is ‘credible’.

But sceptics say the sidestepping ‘gnome’ could be a speedy child or even a small animal.

Last week’s footage was taken by Juan Carlos Roldan, his brother Javier and five friends, who were larking around by the water fountain in Clodomira.

Juan, who filmed the creature, referred to it as “something that looked like a dwarf”.

He said: “It was walking sideways and was wearing dark clothes. But it was impossible to see its face because its face was covered in shadows.”

One of the lads, who were aged 15-22, yesterday told Argentinean reporters: “We were messing about - singing and dancing - when we heard a loud rustling noise from behind us.

“This tiny thing started running down Avenue San Martin at us. It had a pointy head and dark clothes.

“It was a person of incredibly low stature. We filmed it then got scared and ran off.

“This little thing was barking like a dog - but running sideways on two legs. It headed off towards the football stadium.”

Juan added: “We stopped for a while around a block away from where we saw it. Then we returned and picked up the pieces of clothing that we had left behind and our bikes too but we didn’t see anything else.”

Photographic expert Aldegonda Alvarz, of Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero, yesterday said: “This video footage seems credible. We could be looking at another ‘petido orejudo’ - small being.”

The Sun’s video of a ‘creepy gnome’ recorded in Argentina last March caused millions to be stunned around the world.

It sparked hundreds coming forward to report similar sightings while a town’s mayor and police chief admitted they had known about ‘the creepy gnome’s’ existence for 20 years.

Teenager Jose Alvarez first caught the creature on film while larking about in his hometown of General Guemes, in the province of Salta, Argentina.

He said: “This is no joke. We are still afraid to go out - just like everyone else in the neighbourhood now.

“One of my friends was so scared after seeing that thing that we had to take him to the hospital.”

thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/weird/article1817406.ece

If you think Bigfoot is a hoax, you’re not alone. In 2003, the Seattle Post Intelligencer and the New York Times fingered deceased Washington state prankster Ray Wallace as the perpetrator of a decades-long Bigfoot sham; his family claimed he created the Sasquatch legend with suits and fake footprints. More recently, in August 2008 a news-making Bigfoot corpse in Georgia was revealed to be a gussied-up Halloween costume ordered on the Internet.

But those reports haven’t stopped people like Matt Moneymaker, president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, from seeking the big, hairy truth. He’s led scores of people on $300 four-day Bigfoot treks to North America’s mountain ranges, home (in his estimation) to 10,000 Sasquatches. He dismisses the claim that Wallace invented Bigfoot, and notes that Sasquatch sightings occurred hundreds of years before Wallace was even born. What’s more, he knows from firsthand experience that Bigfoot is real.

“We’ve proven it over and over and over again,” Moneymaker says. “I’ve taken hundreds of people out on expeditions and many people have had encounters during those expeditions. We prove it every month to people who are willing to go out and experience it.”

Bigfoot is just one of dozens of mysterious creatures that may roam the world. Believers argue that while these so-called cryptids have not yet been catalogued by science, they most certainly exist. Out in the wilds of the world, creatures like Orang Pendek in Sumatra (a diminutive ape/human hybrid), Mokele-mbembe in the Republic of Congo (a living dinosaur) and Phaya Naga in the Mekong River (a fire-breathing snakelike creature) are lurking.

As the host of the SciFi Channel’s Destination Truth, Joshua Gates investigates reports of unexplained creatures in remote corners of the world. While the show rarely ends with definitive proof that any particular cryptid exists, he and his team have unearthed convincing proof of some creatures — most notably a Yeti footprint found in Nepal. Gates describes himself as an “open-minded skeptic” who holds out for the possibility that cryptids may be hiding out there.

“There is a real sense that there are mysteries that have not been solved in places like the Amazon and elsewhere,” Gates says. “And that’s borne out by how every year, they are cataloging not just new plants and new fungi… they’re actually cataloging new vertebrates.”

Despite ubiquitous GPS systems and Google maps, broad swaths of the world remain uncharted, perhaps allowing cryptids to go undetected. But, partly thanks to technology, this is a boom time for cryptozoology, the study of mysterious creatures. Websites like cryptomundo.com (run by famed cryptozoologist Loren Coleman) and Moneymaker’s BFRO.net are read by international audiences willing to explore where strange animals are spotted. Adherents believe that with a global network of searchers, proof of the existence of mysterious creatures can come soon.

Modern cameras may also help snag sightings of elusive prey. One Japanese expedition is using cutting-edge motion detection cameras (and sponsorship money from Japanese brewery Suntory and electronics company Nikon) to look for Nepal’s Yeti, aka the Abominable Snowman (or, Bigfoot’s snowbound cousin). Likewise, the Orang Pedenk Project in Indonesia hopes to use heat- and motion-sensitive cameras to capture photos of the small apelike creatures that walk like men.

The most famous cryptids, like Bigfoot, are popular among curious travelers. In fact, according to a recent British poll, Scotland’s Loch Ness is the most popular tourist destination in the United Kingdom, no doubt thanks to its most famous possible resident, the Loch Ness Monster. While Nessie is notoriously bashful, area attractions like the Loch Ness Research Center draw hundreds of visitors every year.

Less savory beasts also attract fans. When the Chupacabra was first reported in Puerto Rico in the 1990s, enterprising locals organized island tours to look for this creature that reportedly sucks blood from animals. “It is taken seriously, but it’s more of a joke than anything,” Puerto Rico Tourism Company spokesperson Mari Jo Laborde says. “Every once in a while there’s an appearance that makes the newspaper, like a story about the Chupacabra showing up somewhere. But it’s more of a folktale than something people fear.” As sightings in Puerto Rico have died down, the Chupacabra has spread to other countries, most recently in the American Southwest.

While Bigfoot, Nessie and Chupacabra are notoriously elusive, they are arguably the most accessible cryptids. Travelers searching for encounters with other creatures need to set out into wilder terrain, like Papua New Guinea, where the mysterious winged Ropen has been reported, or the Amazon, purported home of the giant anaconda and one-eyed sloth creature call the Mapinguary.

“In general, these stories have more life in cultures that are still developing,” Gates says. “What happens is the more industrialized and modernized and integrated with the world, the more these stories tend to slip away.”

wflxfox29.com/Global/story.asp?S=9183367

JEFFERSON — He’s known in some locales as “The Woolly Booger,” “The Cypress Swamp Monster” or “Sasquatch.” Elsewhere, he answers to “Bigfoot.” Whatever he’s called, he’ll be the topic of conversation here Saturday.

The 2008 Texas Bigfoot Conference, an annual gathering of cryptozoologists, will be held in the Jefferson High School Commons Area from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The first Texas Bigfoot Conference was held in September 2001 and has been held in Jefferson every year since with the exception of 2006, according to Craig Woolheater, director of the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservatory, a non-profit, scientific research organization.

In 2006, the TBRC collaborated with the University of Texas-San Antonio for the exhibit “Bigfoot in Texas?” and speaker presentations, Woolheater explained.

There is a history of reported Bigfoot sightings and activity in and around Jefferson through the decades, which is why this East Texas community was selected as the location for the conference.

“There is a historical record of sightings in the area,” Woolheater said. “There also have been many sightings in the Caddo Lake area where the creature was nicknamed ‘The Caddo Critter.’

“There also was a ‘Big Cypress Swamp Monster’ reported in the Jefferson area in the 1960s and ’70s and there was a sighting that was investigated by Dwain Dennis, then-owner and publisher the Jefferson Jimplecute in 1965,” he said.

Reports of these and others sightings can be found at www.texasbigfoot.org.

Organizers are expecting between 300 and 500 attendees for this year’s event.

“Last year we had more than 450 attend, including a visit by U.S. Congressman Louie Gohmert,” Woolheater said.

Gohmert was a guest of Dick Collins, founder of the Collins Academy. Collins sponsored speakers for the conference last year and again this year.

“We give an educational presentation for students in Jefferson,” Woolheater said. “This year we are giving a presentation to the seventh grade students of Jefferson the morning of the 17th (Friday), two presentations to high school science classes in Jefferson that afternoon, as well as a special presentation at the Collins Academy Friday morning.”

Peter Byrne, who has dedicated decades tracking and trying to prove the existence of Bigfoot, will present those Friday classes.

Seminar speakers

The annual Texas Bigfoot Conference will feature an impressive lineup of speakers who have researched the legendary creature for decades.

Keynote speaker for the fundraiser dinner at 6 p.m. Saturday will be Byrne, whose military background as an RAF pilot in World War II and experience as an adventurer, explorer, hunter-turned-conservationist, and friend to the wealthy and influential uniquely qualify him to lead expedition and research projects in search of yeti — another name for the abominable snowman — and Sasquatch evidence on a scale not seen before or since.

Byrne, once described by a writer for USA Today as “a cross between Don Quixote and Indiana Jones,” led the historic Tom Slick expeditions in the 1960s and the Bigfoot Research Project in the 1990s and he will discuss those efforts, the findings and the failures Saturday night.

Currently Byrne, who lives in the Los Angeles area, continues to serve as the executive director of the International Wildlife Conservation Society, a non-profit group that he co-founded in 1968. He designs and implements wildlife conservation programs for the government of Nepal, including elephant and tiger studies and wetlands reclamation projects.

Among the day’s lineup of speakers are W. Henner Fahrenbach and David Paulides.

Fahrenbach is a retired zoologist who worked for 30 years as chairman of the Laboratory of Electron Microscopy at the Oregon Regional Primate Center in Beaverton, Ore.

He has published numerous papers in a variety of journals in the fields of histology and neurobiology, in addition to several analyses of Sasquatch biology.

A member of the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy, Dr. Fahrenbach has investigated many Sasquatch sighting reports and is the custodian of the world’s largest collection of possible Sasquatch hairs. He currently resides in the eastern edge of the greater Phoenix metro area.

Paulides holds two degrees from the University of San Francisco, and has a professional background that includes 20 years in law enforcement and senior executive positions in the technology sector. His lifelong interest in the Sasquatch was triggered by a boyhood camping experience with his father in the late 1960s.

In 2004, he was part of the founders group that formed North America Bigfoot Search (NABS) where his investigative and analytical skills and experience were invaluable in researching bigfoot sightings.

Paulides is currently the Executive Director of NABS. He makes his permanent residence in Los Gatos, Calif.

Saturday’s symposium will once again be chaired by Woolheater. A complete list of speakers and biographies can be found at www.texasbigfoot.org.

General admission to the symposium is $20 for adults. General admission for children 8 years of age and younger is $5. Student (with student ID) admission is $10.

marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/content/features/stories/2008/

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Scientists in the US who have examined hairs claimed to belong to a yeti in India say that in fact they belong to a species of Himalayan goat.

They say that DNA tests on the hairs - obtained from the north-east Indian state of Meghalaya - show that they are from a goat known as a Himalayan Goral.

The rough-haired creature has a grey-brown coat and is between 95-130cm (37-51in) in length.

It was not previously thought to roam so far south of its known habitat.

Those who believe in the existence of the little known Indian version of the legendary yeti - or abominable snow man - say it is an ape-like creature called mande barung - or forest man.

The BBC was given the hairs by passionate yeti believer Dipu Marak, who retrieved them from a site in dense jungle after the mande barung was allegedly seen by a forester for three days in a row in 2003.

‘Interesting result’

“We always knew that the link between the sightings of the Indian yeti and the finding of the hairs was purely circumstantial,” said ape expert Ian Redmond who carried out a preliminary series of tests on the hairs earlier this year which proved inconclusive.

“Nevertheless, the DNA test is an interesting result because the reported location where this sample was collected is way south of the published distribution maps of the Goral species, which is said to live between 1,000 to 4,000 metres up in the Himalayas.

“Perhaps we have a more modest discovery - extending the known range of the goral rather than confirming the existence of the lowland yeti,” he said.

Mr Marak said that the hairs could have provided compelling evidence of the existence of a black and grey ape-like animal which stands about 3m (nearly 10ft) tall.

“While these results are discouraging, it does not affect my firm conviction that there is a yeti-like creature out there,” he said. “It has been seen too often for it to be dismissed as nothing more than a myth.”

‘Startling resemblance’

In recent years different witnesses in the West, South and East Garo hills of Meghalaya say that they have seen the creature, which Mr Marak estimates to weighs about 300kg (660lb) and is herbivorous, surviving on fruit, roots and tree bark.

Scientists said that initial microscopic tests on the hairs were “potentially very exciting” as they bore a “startling resemblance” to similar suspected yeti hairs collected by Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary.

After the microscope tests, the hairs were sent to a lab in the US for DNA analysis. By a “process of elimination” the hairs from India were compared with hairs from other animals known to live in the area around the Garo hills.

The first series of tests were carried out at Oxford Brookes University in central England with award-winning primatologist Anna Nekaris and microscopy expert Jon Wells from the university’s anthropology department.

Using some of the most sophisticated microscopes in Britain, the hairs were magnified up to 200 times and then compared with a database of other hairs provided to Mr Redmond from Oxford’s Natural History Museum and the primatology department at Oxford Brookes University.

After the tests were completed, Mr Redmond - who is also a senior consultant for the UN’s Great Ape Survival Project - and Ms Nekaris were able to rule out the “obvious candidates” to whom the hairs might belong.

However the hairs were then sent to the US for further tests where the link with the goral goat was established.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7666900.stm