Media Article # 392

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

USU sessions range from Bigfoot to straw biofuel

By Greg Lavine
The Salt Lake Tribune

Possible buttock impressions from "Bigfoot" and a potential new source of biofuel were among the papers presented at last week's American Association for the Advancement of Science Pacific Division conference at Utah State University in Logan.

Bigfoot or Sasquatch -- also known as the abominable snowman -- is thought to be a mammoth humanlike, fur-covered primate whose legend outweighs the evidence of its existence. While hundreds of sightings have been reported over the years, there is little firm scientific proof.

Idaho State University and University of Washington researchers examined body imprints found in Washington by the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, a group that seeks conclusive proof of Bigfoot's existence. D. Jeffrey Meldrum, a biologist with Idaho State University, and Daris Swindler, an emeritus anthropology professor at the University of Washington, submitted their paper "The Skookum Imprint: Trace Evidence of Sasquatch?"

The Bigfoot research group said it found forearm, buttock, thigh, lower leg and heel imprints in 2000 in Gifford-Pinchot National Forest. The impressions, found in loamy soil, were compared to elk body imprints. According to the researchers, the hair patterns and body imprints did not match those of an elk.

The researchers indicate the impressions could have come from an 8-foot-tall hominid, but whether they belonged to Bigfoot remains a question, they said. Some impressions were of a leg tendon that points to the ability to walk on two feet.

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