Now compare the monster talk item with this;

Josh Gates interview with Dr. Melba Ketchum on DNA sample

(Here is the transcript of Josh Gates’ 11/5/09 interview with Dr. Melba Ketchum, a forensic analyst with DNA Diagnostics, Inc., from the an episode of Destination Truth)

Ketchum: I didn’t think we would have anything to talk about here, to be honest. I was just going to rule out yeti and be done with it. I submitted the sequence that we obtained from this hair sample to a large international database that scientists use to deposit their sequence data. Well, at first I was very skeptical, because we’ve had these things come into our lab in the past, and they never panned out to be anything interesting. However, this sample did test very clearly on the human panel of markers. That makes it a primate, and it makes it a large primate.

Gates: And how are we sure that it isn’t just human contamination or that it’s just DNA from human hair?

Ketchum: The hair, visually, is not human. It’s courser than horse tail hair.

Gates: (voiceover) what she told me next seemed unbelievable.

Ketchum: Initial searches indicate that it’s an unknown sequence. There are literally millions of sequences in this database. And we’re really shocked that it didn’t match any of the species exactly in the database.

Gates: What would be required in order for us to say, from a DNA standpoint, the yeti is a real animal.

Ketchum: If we’re going to prove that there potentially is a new species, with this first hair sample, we really need more hair samples like it. And once you establish there is a group of animals, that will go a long ways towards proving that there is a new species indeed.

Assuming there is no chicanery involved (and with TV, how can you ever be sure?) this has to be considered a major find. And it gives us good reason to go back and find the results that we’ve all heard of before, of those hairs that come back unknown primate. If these hairs can be located and tested again, they might show a familial resemblance with the hairs Destination Truth found. And I’d find that pretty significant.

J.Gates

Much better!

Lot of criticism of Gonzalez etc for not taking the easy option and having their sample quickly analysed. They are reported thus;

Previous attempts to analyze potential Bigfoot DNA haven’t resulted in anything that could be considered as the scientific find of the ages. That’s why Gonzalez is being very careful about who he’ll turn over his reported Bigfoot DNA to.

And Gonzales (?)
“We need somebody to come forward to take this DNA and get it mapped,” he told AOL. “Since nobody knows what a Bigfoot is, there’s no available DNA for it. But by testing this DNA, by process of elimination we can find out if it was a bear, gorilla, baboon or something.

Now if you listen to the following monstertalk item and you are even basically fair minded you will understand why they do not wish refer it to this particular lab or any like it especially as it has been pivotal in not finding anything special in the last 16 years. Indeed the labs reputation seems to have been built on this failure. Todd Disotell comes across as arrogant and scoftical and by no means fair minded. His lab and those like it is the last place to take a potential sasqatch sample to, unless it is in a body, when he could enjoy the glory having been spoon fed the evidence.

Please look at this link but if you are someone who gives credence to sasquatch be prepared to be sneered at!

I believe we are sharing the prayer book! LOL We just approach the situation with different thinking styles. I’m afraid I am a glass half empty, rather than a glass half full when it comes to things. Like many people here, I am here for answers to the great mystery that is Cryptozoology!

And I agree, I do believe these folks are sincere in the matter and I am happy they did do DNA, it will just be a wait for the results. It just takes too damn long for the results.

Also, I am delighted you brought up the dermal ridges conversation. But my husband and I discussed it at length, and neither of us felt the various debunking of them made sense for ALL of the prints. Problem with debunking what ever method they use to debunk, does not hold with the varying conditions the prints are found or made in. Your name has inspired quite an informative debate. Thank you Hapa, and flame821 for the dermal ridges information!

Now I must go and read that section of Jeff’s book!

Your welcome

Page 256 of Meldrum’s book talked about wicking and plaster and how you can tell the difference between dessication and dermal ridges, and how the former cannot account for prints with dermal ridges made in mud or wet silt.

There’s also a $100,000 reward from proprietors of the California’s Willow Creek-China Flat Museum for anyone who can fool a panel of experts with fake tracks. If we were capable of perfectly faking all Bigfoot track evidence, even making dessication ridges to pass perfectly for Dermal ridges, then somebody should be either getting rich or going public with being denied the cash unfairly. See Michael Newton’s Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: a global guide, page 61.

Flame821:- Thanks for your cheery support at this difficult time!

Korollocke:- If (in the future) they had DNA found & tested with an ‘unknown primate’ result would you be happy? Would you change your sceptical take on this story? Or for that matter if it was bear DNA, would your views alter with hindsight?

My view is that a hoax and a press conference is akin to a fast track to hell! Nobody in their right minds would follow in the footsteps of Biscardi and the Georgia boys of 2008. It’s the road to complete personal ruination. I think Gonzales & Co at the press conference were sincere.