The creature "Bigfoot" is real, and he is a human cousin with DNA so close it diverged from humans only 15,000 years ago.

At least that is what one dubious study is saying. A press release from DNA Diagnostics, a company that performs genetic testing on humans and animals, reveals that their founder Dr. Melba S. Ketchum has performed a five-year study and discovered that "Bigfoot" or "Sasquatch" is a hominin creature living in North America. She says that the mitochondrial DNA is the same as humans, indicating that an unnamed creature mated with human women, since mitochondrial DNA comes only from a person's mother.

"A team of scientists can verify that their 5-year long DNA study, currently under peer-review, confirms the existence of a novel hominin hybrid species, commonly called 'Bigfoot' or 'Sasquatch,' living in North America. Researchers' extensive DNA sequencing suggests that the legendary Sasquatch is a human relative that arose approximately 15,000 years ago as a hybrid cross of modern Homo sapiens with an unknown primate species," the release states.

For the study, Ketchum says that she obtained three samples of Sasquatch DNA. The nuclear DNA, which is passed down from both parents to their offspring, is that of a novel species.

The finding has scientists skeptical, to say the least. For starters, Ketchum's evidence has not yet appeared in a scientific journal to furnish proof of her findings. Of course, if the study was real, any scientific journal would jump at the chance to publish her findings.

In addition, there have been numerous claims of Bigfoot's existence. However, all were either debunked as hoaxes or proved to be inconclusive.

Experts also suggest that the sample may have been tainted with human DNA; since Ketchum does not indicate from where she obtained it, and it may have been collected by amateurs with no evidence-gathering training.

However, without evidence in either direction, it is possible, though not probable, that the DNA was obtained from a half-human hybrid species hiding in North America.

"Genetically, the Sasquatch are a human hybrid with unambiguously modern human maternal ancestry," Ketchum said in a statement. "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."