Jeanna Bryner
Senior Writer
LiveScience.com

Our ape-like ancestors might have walked like today's gibbons, whose super bendy feet give them a floppy strut.

The modern human foot first evolved in our ancestors around 1.8 million years ago, said Evie Vereecke of the University of Liverpool in England. But studies suggest that even before our advanced feet emerged, our mostly tree-climbing ancestors were walking upright for short stints.

Vereecke wanted to find out how they would have done that without specialized walking feet.

Matt Knapp, an AIBR member, created a digital bigfoot recording for the "Let's Talk Bigfoot" radio program promo. Although it was created in the studio, witnesses have commented that it was very similar to howls they have heard in the field. If it is indeed similar, the recording may be very useful for call blasting. Matt has graciously provided two recordings for your use:

The original from the promo

Shorter, higher pictched

In order to improve future recordings, Matt has asked that you let us know how it works. Please email kathy.strain@bigfootresearch.com with your comments.

Sooner or later somebody always asks me: "You don't think there is such a thing as an Abominable Snowman, do you?" My reply is always the same: "No. I believe there are hundreds if not thousands of unknown anthropoids, of at least half a dozen kinds, running all over five continents." And I usually add for good measure: "But they're not men, none of them lives in snow, and we have no right to call them abominable."

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, Thu Feb 22, 12:50 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chimpanzees have been seen using spears to hunt bush babies, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a study that demonstrates a whole new level of tool use and planning by our closest living relatives.

Chris Bateman, January 26, 2007, Union Democrat

BY DAY SHE'S the Stanislaus National Forest's archaeologist. With a master's degree in anthropology, she makes sure prehistoric Native American sites in the woods are protected. She's also the forest's liaison with the Me-Wuk tribe.

By Robin Wilson, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Pocatello, Idaho - On a Sunday afternoon in June, Jeffrey Meldrum jumps into his navy-blue Suburban and follows a beat-up red pickup truck heading out of town. Willie Preacher, an American Indian artist, is leading the way in the pickup. He wants to show Mr. Meldrum some Indian drawings he’s seen on a large pile of volcanic rocks.

Courtesy of the Bigfoot Information Project, here is your opportunity to hear three great interviews with some of the leading researchers in bigfooting today. You can download the interviews to your iPod or select another mp3 format.

Kathy Moskowitz Strain (AIBR Chair)

Scott Herriott

Rick Noll (AIBR Advisor)

By: Roger Knights

Chris Murphy’s book, Meet the Sasquatch, indicated how impressive an attractive package of visual evidence is to the public. A Bigfoot Online Museum, containing more material like that in Murphy’s book, would be similarly impressive and popular. (Assuming the owners of artifacts would agree to allow photos of them to be taken and used online by a non-profit organization.)

Genetic analysis suggests a messy split between the two lineages.

Michael Hopkin - Nature Magazine

The evolutionary split between humans and our nearest evolutionary cousins, chimpanzees, may have occurred more recently than we thought, according to a new comparison of the respective genetic sequences. What's more, it might have been a messy divorce rather than a clean break — leading to the controversial theory that our two sets of ancestors may have interbred many thousands of years after first parting company.