Bigfoot updates:

Atlanta Journal Constitution, USA: ‘Bigfoot’ press conference reveals possum DNA:

Of three samples in a preliminary DNA test, one came back inconclusive, one contained traces of human DNA and one had traces of opossum DNA — probably from something the creature ate, they said.

They didn’t produce a body — that’s in a hidden location, they said, after being moved from a freezer that broke down a couple of times. They also wouldn’t say exactly where they found the creature, and where they claimed they saw a band of others watching them. And they won’t let anyone but their own hand-picked scientists examine the body.

From smh.com.au: Hoax interview throws doubt on Bigfoot discovery:

The two men who claim to have found Bigfoot have admitted to filming a hoax video with a fake scientist, but they still claim they have a real Bigfoot corpse in the freezer and will reveal all at a press conference.

From Scientific American: Bigfoot Expert Weighs In: “I’m Extremely Skeptical”:

So a picture is worth a 1,000 words. What I’ve seen so far is not compelling in the least, and I think the pictures cast grave doubts on their claim. It just looks like a costume with some fake guts thrown on top for effect. Even if [the bigfoot carcass] had have been eviscerated by a predator or a scavenger, [the entrails] wouldn’t just be sitting up on top like that. Someone says [on the Internet] that they’ve found an off-the-shelf costume that looks a lot like the figure in these pictures.

So apparently [the bigfoot finders] stuffed the body into a freezer. You look at it and there doesn’t seem to be any mass there, of muscles and bones and so forth. Also, they tried freezing the corpse in a block of ice—you wouldn’t do that if you were trying to preserve a specimen, unless you’re trying to hide the details.

Bigfoot is no longer a cryptid?  Has the advancement of urbanization and habitat degradation, loss, and fragmentation finally flushed Bigfoot into our existence?  Just in time for the Montauk Monster craze to settle, a group claims to have evidence of Bigfoot’s existence.  I can’t wait to see what these northern Georgia boys have to say on Friday.  From the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

Matthew Whitton, a police officer, and his friend Rick Dyer didn’t shoot a Sasquatch. But they say they found its body in the woods of northern Georgia.

Together with Tom Biscardi, CEO of a California group called Searching for Bigfoot (more commonly known in the Northwest as Sasquatch), they’ve announced they will share photos and DNA evidence to prove the existence of the legendary man-ape in a press conference Friday.

Here are some facts listed about the alleged Bigfoot in a press release:

The creature is seven feet seven inches tall.

It weighs over five hundred pounds.

The creature looks like it is part human and part ape-like.

It is male.

It has reddish hair and blackish-grey eyes.

It has two arms and two legs, and five fingers on each hand and
five toes on each foot.

The feet are flat and similar to human feet.

Its footprint is sixteen and three-quarters inches long and five and three-quarters inches wide at the heel.

From the palm of the hand to the tip of the middle finger, its hands are
eleven and three-quarters inches long and six and one-quarter inches wide.

The creatures walk upright. (Several of them were sighted on the same day that the body was found.)

The teeth are more human-like than ape-like.

DNA tests are currently being done and the current DNA and photo evidence will be presented at the press conference on Friday, August 15th.

Apparently, Tom Biscardi, CEO of Searching for Bigfoot has been involved in a Bigfoot body discovery before, and he “offered viewers the chance to see a Bigfoot captured on live television for only $59.95″ – obviously this never came to fruition. From LiveScience.com, NY:

This is not the first time a Bigfoot body has been claimed to have been found. A man named Tom Biscardi, founder of something called the Great American Bigfoot Research Organization, once claimed he had captured a Bigfoot. On Aug. 19, 2005, Biscardi appeared on the radio show “Coast to Coast with George Noory.” Biscardi claimed his group had captured a Bigfoot a week earlier, a male beast that weighed over 400 pounds and stood 8-feet tall. He said he would be presenting photos of it several days later. It turned out to be a hoax.

Interestingly, Biscardi is also involved in the new Bigfoot body discovery.

Speaking on behalf of the Georgia men this week, Biscardi said, “Extensive scientific studies will be done on the body by a team of scientists including a molecular biologist, an anthropologist, a paleontologist and other scientists over the next few months at an undisclosed location” under armed guard.

If it all sounds very cloak-and-dagger, it is. Unnamed experts? Undisclosed location? Sounds more like “The X-Files” than real science.

For more information: Searching For Bigfoot – Special Announcement

On the Net: “Do Mythic Creatures Exist? Show Me the Body: Purported sightings of Bigfoot, Nessie and Ogopogo fire our imaginations. But anecdotes alone do not make a science”
On the Net: Bigfoot Pictures, Montauk Monster Pictures, Chupucabra Video: The Visually Unexplained: The Mounting Visual Evidence in the World of Cryptozoology