A team of researchers led by Melba Ketchum, a Texas veterinarian, claims to have used DNA samples to prove the existence of Bigfoot, reports the Huffington Post.  

On the team’s Sasquatch Genome Project’s website,  they claim the genetic testing also confirmed the hairy beast is half-human, the result of a human mating with an unknown primate about 13,000 years ago.

The research, however, was rejected by mainstream science journals and self-published as the first volume on an online science journal DeNovo Journal of Science last week.

“Rather than spend another five years just trying to find a journal to publish and hoping that decent, open minded reviewers would be chosen, we acquired the rights to this journal and renamed it so we would not lose the passing peer reviews that are expected by the public and the scientific community,” Ketchum said.

Additionally, Ketchum is calling for the government to recognize Bigfoot as an indigenous population, which would come with protections under federal law.  “Government at all levels must recognize them as an indigenous people and immediately protect their human and Constitutional rights against those who would see in their physical and cultural differences a ‘license’ to  hunt, trap, or kill them,”  she said in a statement.

Although the team’s research was not embraced by mainstream scientists, there is a thriving community of people who believe Bigfoot is more than a mythological beast.  According to the  Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, there are even reports of Bigfoot sightings right here in Rhode Island.

In 2010, a motorist claimed he was spooked by an unidentified animal that ran quickly across Route 6 on two legs which then hopped over the guardrail.  In 2006, another witness claimed to have seen a woven stick structure in a South Kingstown forest. Bigfoot investigators say such structures are thought to be created by the mammal.   A biker reported he spotted Bigfoot in Glendale during the day in 1998.

To see more Bigfoot sightings, click here.

Have you ever seen Bigfoot in Rhode Island? Tell us your Bigfoot sighting in the comment section below!