Commentary: The Sykes DNA Study – What will the results show? And the “dirty little secret”

With October fast approaching the “Bigfoot World” is wondering what the Sykes study will show. Unlike the Ketchum DNA Study, Dr. Sykes has not been betrayed by close personal friends or colleges involved in his study, so except for a few rumors we have no “leaks”. There also seems to be no big interest in any of Dr. Sykes personal beliefs, financial dealings, past indiscretions, or delays in publishing results when promised. It appears the media and blogs that report on Bigfoot are willing to be patient and just wait for the results. I find the disparity in the treatment of Dr. Sykes verses Dr. Ketchum to be reprehensible and hypocritical. In a business that is all about clicks to generate revenue it appears politics and agendas are overriding the all mighty dollar, so in a nut shell Dr. Sykes is “getting a pass”.

While the media and blogs patiently await Dr. Sykes findings I was contemplating what the results of his DNA Study might be. I came up with three possible results:

·        All the samples were from a known animal (Bear, Horse, Wolf, Dog, etc.)

·        A new species of “Bipedal Ape”

·        The results will be similar to and support the findings in the Ketchum DNA Study

The first two results from above are the most palatable to Dr. Ketchum’s critics and the mainstream scientific world. 

If all the samples tested came back from “known animals” then the mystery still remains and those who profit and make their lively hood on Bigfoot will continue to do so. Having “scientific proof” Bigfoot exist would make much of the “Bigfoot Industry” obsolete just as the Model T put the Buggy Whip Industry out of business in the early 1900’s. .

If Dr. Sykes reports he has DNA from an unknown Bipedal Ape then this will be a “win/win” for both the mainstream science community and the Meldrum/Moneymaker crowd. The old saying “kill two birds with one stone” would apply. This would “discredit” the Ketchum DNA Study, satisfy mainstream science who has hinted it would accept an “undiscovered Bipedal Ape”, and solidify the Meldrums and the Moneymakers of the “Bigfoot World” as experts. In my opinion this is the outcome the majority of the Bigfoot world is hoping for.

If Dr. Sykes produces results that are similar to and/or supports the Ketchum DNA Study then the “Bigfoot World” and the scientific world for that matter would be turned on its collective heads. All the critics, detractors, bloggers, main stream science, etc. will have nasty, rotten, smelly EGG ON THEIR FACE! This would be a disaster that many would not recover from. Reputations would be ruined, lively hoods would be damaged, bloggers embarrassed pundits discredited and worst of all for the before mentioned, Dr. Ketchum and her team would be vindicated. In my opinion this is the least desired and the most feared outcome for the majority of the “Bigfoot World”. 

Now for the “Dirty Little Secret”, in my opinion Dr. Sykes has known of the existence of Bigfoot/Yeti since 2001. He has had the “proof” via DNA since 2001 and he has kept his mouth shut and sat on this information since 2001. Why do I think this? Because back in 2001 both in a London Times article and later in a National Geographic Special Dr. Sykes admitted the following:

“We found some DNA in it, but we don’t know what it is. It’s not a human, not a bear nor anything else we have so far been able to identify. It’s a mystery and I never thought this would end in a mystery. We have never encountered DNA that we couldn’t recognize before.”

This statement is extremely similar to statements made by Dr. Ketchum and later backed up the Ketchum DNA Study. See the below video for the National Geographic special that documented the collection of the hair samples and presented an interview with Dr. Sykes commenting on odd results.

 

 Sykes said the following in the special:

 “Because we were half expecting a bear, because of the analysis of the skin sample…..we asked the reaction to look specifically for bear DNA. But there was not any there. It’s certainly mysterious, it’s certainly mysterious…there was a nice plump follicle there; normally we would have no difficulty at all. It had all the hallmarks of good material.” The National Geographic narrator followed with the following statement:  “The DNA sample was tested against human, bear, and primate DNA but so far Professor Sykes can’t match it from any known species.”

The above is staggering because Dr. Ketchum had the EXACT SAME RESULTS nine years later. Here is the excerpt from the Ketchum DNA Study aka Novel North American Hominins, Next Generation Sequencing of Three Whole Genomes and Associated Studies.

Screening of the Hominin DNA Samples

Since the amount of hair available in the samples was finite, we opted to begin this project by screening tissue samples that had larger quantities of DNA. Universal mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b primers for species determination as well as universal mammalian primers designed for species identification in the hypervariable region 1 were utilized21-28. All 111 screened samples revealed 100% human cytochrome b and hypervariable region 1 sequences with no heteroplasmic bases that would indicate contamination or a mixture. These samples were then sent out to another laboratory for mitochondrial whole genome sequencing.

The hominin samples were also amplified using Promega PowerPlex® 16, a nuclear STR DNA multiplex platform that is specific for humans and higher primates. The submitters and the blank extraction controls were amplified to determine the presence of non-human DNA and to obtain a profile to compare with hominin DNA samples. PowerPlex® 16 amplification of the hominin samples yielded only partial profiles with off-ladder alleles while amplification of DNA from the submitters yielded complete profiles and the control blank indicated no amplification (Figure 9).

The preliminary screening, therefore, established that Sasquatch samples were not contaminated with submitters DNA and that Sasquatch samples comprised some human mitochondrial DNA but with nuclear DNA anomalies. Once it was established that the Sasquatch nuclear DNA did not conform to human DNA, the remaining samples were extracted.

To summarize the above excerpt Dr. Ketchum used human/mammal primers (Universal mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b primers for species determination as well as universal mammalian primers designed for species identification in the hypervariable region 1 were utilized21-28) and was unable to get the DNA to amplify. This means the DNA was NOT HUMAN OR ANY KNOWN MAMMAL.

I think Dr. Sykes had the “smoking gun” of Bigfoot DNA. He had an isolated sample he could not identify, he had the DNA profile of a Yeti aka Bigfoot in 2001. Since this was a taboo subject I think he just sat on this information. When the Ketchum Study surfaced with the hundreds of samples Dr. Sykes had his opportunity to steal the show. In my opinion that is what he is doing, “stealing the show”. Now that Dr. Ketchum has taken the slings and arrows the way is clear for him to request samples and publish his results. 

Based on what Dr. Sykes has said previously and the rumors floating around that the DNA results support the existence of Bigfoot I think his findings will support the Ketchum DNA Study. Will Dr. Sykes have the integrity and the courage to publish his findings if this is true? There is an enormous amount of pressure both public and behind the scenes for the results to be “Bipedal Ape” or “Inconclusive”. 

We will all know soon when the Sykes results are made public in October, if they are made public. Remember Dr. Sykes has not met his own published time line for publishing the paper so I should say I HOPE the results are made public.