Footprints Are Named

Lucas, Spielmann and Lockley, eds., 2007, Cenozoic Vertebrate Tracks and Traces. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 42.

ICHNOTAXONOMY OF GIANT HOMINOID TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA

D. JEFFREY MELDRUM

Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, 921 S. 8th Ave., Stop 8007, Pocatello, ID 83209-8007

Abstract

Large bipedal hominoid footprints, commonly attributed to Bigfoot or sasquatch, continue to be discovered and documented, occasionally in correlation with eyewitness sightings, and rarely in concert with photographic record of the trackmaker (gen. et sp. indet.). One of the best-documented instances occurred in 1967,when Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin filmed an over two meter tall upright striding hominoid figure, at the site of Bluff Creek, in Del Norte County, California, and cast a right and left pair of exceptionally clear footprints in firm moist sand. Additional footprints were filmed, photographed, and cast by multiple witnesses. Molds and casts of a series of these are reposited at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, while ten original casts are among the Titmus Collection at the Willow Creek China Flats Museum, Humboldt County, California. These casts have been 3D-scanned and archived as part of a footprint virtualization project and scan images are accessible on-line through the Idaho Museum of Natural History. The initial pair, originally cast by Patterson, and the remaining casts made by Titmus, are designated the holotype of a novel ichnogenus and ichnospecies describing these plantigrade pentadactyl bipedal primate footprints Anthropoidipes ameriborealis (North American ape foot). The footprints imply a primitively flat, flexible foot lacking a stiff longitudinal arch,combined with a derived, non-divergent medial digit.

Below are selected photos from the paper:

Duplicates of the Patterson Casts, Contours of cast on right

Photographs taken by Laverty on October 23, 1967 of footprints examined on the Bluff Creek sandbar film site. Note dynamic nature of tracks and pressure ridge.

Link to full paper (pdf)