Bigfoot DNA Study Hair Samples, Finger Prints, and Candy Wrappers
With all the buzz that has been generated with the announcement that the Ketchum DNA Study will be released "very very soon", I thought it would be interesting to show you some of the actual hair samples that I submitted to the study. The samples were collected over a two year period in three locations, the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, a Public Recreation Area, and my back yard. I also sent in a candy wrapper that may have contained saliva. I also found a large finger print on the sticky side of the tape with a large hair sample.
Scott, did you find a lot of variance in color? I've wanted to ask that since I first saw you bag a hair sample, putting on your rubber glove and getting a fresh ziplock bag. I wonder if there's anyway to tell age from the hair strands? That's another thing I've been wondering about...how long do they live? I think the really "Big" ones that everyone searches for are not that common. My thought, and this is shear speculation on my part (IMHS), is that you see the big ones because they are the protectors of a group and expose themselves to frighten or lead a potential threat away. Any thoughts on that one? That leads to the age issue again ...I wonder how long does it take for them to be mature adults? Maybe we'll be able to simply ask THEM these questions some day.
ReplyDeleteRobin, Most of the samples I collected were black or brown. I did get some white hairs, and a few gray ones.
DeleteAs far as age or how long they live, I would assume the same life span as us, maybe shorter because of no medicine, a simple abscess tooth could kill with no antibiotic.
What technique did you use to prevent cross contamination with your own DNA?
ReplyDelete1. All samples were handled with sterile rubber gloves.
ReplyDelete2. All samples were placed immediately into air tight sterile baggies in the field.
3. Samples were removed from tape with sterilized tweezers.
4. Samples were placed into sterile paper containers to avoid contamination from bacteria/moisture and shipped to Dr. Ketchum.
Scott, Did you smell anything on the hair samples by any chance? Hope you will reply. Thank you, Buster
ReplyDelete