Dec 8, 2015 | By Alec
Over the past few years it has become increasingly evident that really just about anything can be 3D printed; only yesterday we saw how even invisible microscopic pollen can be made into handheld, tangible objects. And over the past few months, scientists from Idaho State University have been working on an even more remarkable project by seeking to 3D print something that might not actually exist. Led by Jeffrey Meldrum of the ISU Anthropology Department, they have 3D printed a full-scale model of the Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot, or what they believe he could have looked like.
Now as most of you undoubtedly know, Bigfoot lives somewhere in the realm between fact and fiction. While giant, ape like creatures certainly walked the earth thousands of years ago, the Sasquatch (who reportedly haunts the forests and mountain ranges of the northwestern US) has appeared on footage and photos that have been very controversial. While sightings have been reported for some time, Bigfoot was first caught on video in the 1960s – something that has been called a both hoax and truthful. It’s one of those things that’s easier to believe if you want to believe it.
True or not, it has been the subject of quite a lot of anthropological research over the last few decades (some more scientific than others). Idaho State University has been studying to concept for years, led by anthropologist Jeffrey Meldrum. Meldrum is specifically interested in the relict hominoids, those ancient apes that played a key role in the evolution of walking upright and could now still be in the forests of the northwest.
As he explains on the website of Idaho State, Meldrum is particularly interested in the Gigantopithecus (a giant ape that lived in Asia until two hundred thousand years ago) or the Australopithecus. Those studies are combined with findings made in North America. ‘In 1996, I found fresh footprints in Walla Walla, Washington with about 45 tracks,’ Meldrum said. ‘20 years later, I have over 250 footprint casts in my lab.’ With tracks about 15 inches in length, they convinced Meldrum that the Sasquatch does actually exist, and he has been collecting data ever since. ‘One important thing to stress is that it’s not just one individual creature, because then you would have a monster if it was a single, lone being. I don’t think it is a hybrid cross between this and that,’ he says.
All that data has since grown to a significant size, though is inconclusive. Nonetheless, Meldrum felt the time was right to build a full-scale model to emphasize how gigantic these creatures actually are. ‘All we’re doing is creating a hypothetical facsimile of what it might look like to convey a notion of the dimensions,’ Meldrum said. ‘First and foremost, it turns out there were other things that we can start to work with on that scale. Instead of starting from scratch we took an existing hominid skeleton, the most complete being a Neanderthal.’
So how do you build a model for such a creature? Meldrum and his team took the data and footprints they did have, and combined that with anthropological atrifacts collected by archaeological society Bone Clones – from the Paranthropus boisei, another primate, and even Neanderthals. The 3D scans they took there were subsequently proportioned to match what they believed to be a Sasquatch anatomy. ‘They gave us permission to do a 3-D scan on a Neanderthal skeleton they found,’ Meldrum said. ‘We compared that to the [1960s footage]. We had to widen the shoulders and increase the thickness in the torso. The hips are as wide as the shoulders; the body was built like a tank.’
These 3D scans were made in the The Idaho Virtualization Lab (IVL) located in the Idaho Museum of Natural History, and led to a skeleton model with a particular feature: a lack of almost a complete neck, coming out of the Paranthropus boisei and the video footage. ‘You can show the animation, the variation, the position of the reflection, extension, or split and the traceability of the foot rather than the imprint of the static prosthetic leg or fake foot,’ Meldrum said of the scans. The size of the full scale model was also based the found footprints, and correspond to a huge size at about eight and a half feet (or more than two and a half meters).
3D printing of this remarkable model took place at the Robotics Unit at ISU, and the many parts were completed over a course of three and a half months. The 3D printed model is certainly impressive and realistic looking. Fans are already very optimistic about the model; a writer from the Bigfoot news website bigfootlunchclub was already intrigued by the unusual lack of a neck. ‘Descriptions of Sasquatch without a neck could have been due to Sasquatch hunching forward. Now, with the skeleton we can see that hunching forward is not required to achieve this same look, it could simply be the jawline obscuring the neck,’ he writes.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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Why not add some flesh muscle and hair to the model, as has been done with Neanderthal models. Has any one with anatomic experience commented on whether this model would be anatomically supportable, ie. could the bone carry the weight , the neck vertebrae support the skull etc?
harry wrote at 12/23/2015 5:25:41 AM:
The head looks wrong from reports they have a pointy cone heads and the face looks a little flat as they have a human nose not gorilla look.
LCB wrote at 12/17/2015 11:28:52 PM:
Got news for yah, they do actually exist, and 1000s of eyewitnesses of all ages and occupations in life will testify to that fact, foot prints that demonstrate biomechanical morphology found in remote areas of wilderness will testify to the fact, and a certain film captured in 1967 still has not been proven a hoax, and demonstrate the compliant gait of the creature, and fits the common description of the creature. Prints left behind on that sand bar demonstrated the mass of the object in the film. Truthfully the creature has already been documented, but somehow science turned a blind eye, now it might be nearing extinction and it is about time to open up your closed minds to that fact.
Poot wrote at 12/9/2015 7:04:59 PM:
Sike I Was Just Playin' Good Work
Poot wrote at 12/9/2015 7:02:05 PM:
Nigga There Aint No Such Thing As A Sasquatch
Ron howe wrote at 12/8/2015 10:00:33 PM:
I believe that I found foot prints up in the area of hamma hamma in the Olympic forest in Washington St. I believe there's bigfoots in that area and it's just a matter of time before I see one.
Ron howe wrote at 12/8/2015 10:00:14 PM:
I believe that I found foot prints up in the area of hamma hamma in the Olympic forest in Washington St. I believe there's bigfoots in that area and it's just a matter of time before I see one.
Barton wrote at 12/8/2015 7:47:21 PM:
Now stand this thing out in the northwest somewhere, trailcam it and see what shows up.
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