Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science (book)

<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

"Jeff Meldrum's book Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science brings a much-needed level of scientific analysis to the sasquatch - or Bigfoot - debate."

--Jane Goodall, cover blurb

1 Snapshot
2 Details
3 Table of Contents
4 Summary
5 ISBNs
6 External Links

Snapshot

Primate anatomist Jeff Meldrum examines the evidence for Bigfoot.

Details

Original publication: September 2006 (Forge hardcover)
297 numbered pages
Extensive bibliography, index, photographs, illustrations, tables, acknowledgements
Foreword by George M. Schaller

Foreword by George B. Schaller

Introduction

The Science of Hidden Animals: Cryptozoology
Wooden Feet and Fur Suits: Ray Wallace at Bluff Creek
Wildman of the Woods; Native American Traditional Knowledge
The Giant Ape of the Orient: Gigantopithecus
Making a Big Impression: The Skookum Body Cast
Caught on Camera: Photographics and Forensic Measurements
The Wrangler and the Wildwoman: Bob Gimlin's Encounter with Bigfoot
Picture This: Scientific Reaction to the Patterson-Gimlin Film
Ape Antics: Behavioral Parallels
Sound Off: Vocalizations
Grin and Bear It: Misidentifications
By the Numbers: Statistical Analysis
Stepping Through Time: The Evidence of Footprints
Line Upon Line: Dermatoglyphics
Splitting Hairs and Molecules: DNA and Physical Evidence
Where We Stand: The Evidence Weighed and Measured

Selected Bibliography

Index

Summary

Jeff Meldrum, PH.D., is an associate professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University. Being an expert on primate foot structure, he is particularly suited to give an opinion on Bigfoot tracks. If the reports of Bigfoot (or Sasquatch, to use the Canadian term) represent a real unrecognized species, and if the tracks which have been cast (and there are many) are from that unrecognized species, it would be reasonable to expect there to be detectable biological similarities in the tracks. The inferred structure of the feet would ideally be logical for the creatures reported.

Meldrum does much more in this book than analyze the footprints. He also looks at recorded vocalizations, reported behaviours, alleged scat analysis, results of tests on hair, and so on. He credits other people for their research, and includes the opinions of skeptics.

After hundreds of pages, Meldrum says:

"For me, it now seems more incredible to suggest this matter could all be dismissed as mere stories, misidentifications, and spurious hoaxes than it is to at least rationally entertain the well-founded suggestion that the legend of sasquatch possibly has its basis in a real animal and may eventually prove to be among the most astounding zoological discoveries ever."