Meldrum D. Jeffrey

Jeffrey Meldrum, associate professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University and affiliate curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Idaho Museum of Natural History, is one of the new b reed of young primatologists who have an open-minded approach to cryptozoology, especially relating to Bigfoot. After graduating with a PhD in physical anthropology in 1989 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Meldrum specialized, through his initial fieldwork with African monkeys, in foot mechanics. He studied the implications for bipedal adaption and locomotion in early hominids. Meldrum also participated in paleontological field projects to South America, collecting new fossil primate specimens from the Miocene of Columbia and Argentina.

Because he grew up in the Pacific Northwest, Meldrum heard about Bigfoot at an early age and has long been interested in the controversy surrounding this fabled creature. His research involvement in hominology, however, was rekindled in 1996, when he found and cast a series of Bigfoot prints in Washington. The next year, in northern California, he came across fresh tracks. Meldrum has since gathered and purchased collections of Bigfoot track casts as part of a project to study the anatomy of the creature's foot.

Meldrum has appeared frequently, often with J. Richard Greenwell, in documentaries discussing his insights into amateur videotapes allegedly taken of Bigfoot and Yeti. Meldrum is at work on an ambitious and potentially groundbreaking book that will address the anatomy, physiology, phylogenetics, and morphology of the Sasquatch foot.

SEE ALSO:

• Cryptozoologists

SOURCE:

The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters,Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature
Written by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark – Copyright 1999 Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark