Aidan-G
Active member
The Himalaya’s mysterious Abominable Snowman might harbor an even
deeper mystery, according to an Oxford University geneticist who says he
has sequenced the mythic beast’s DNA and proved its existence.
For centuries, native people in the snow-peaked Himalaya Mountains
have described an elusive apelike animal that roams the range, and which
they call the yeti.
Bryan Sykes, a professor of genetics at Oxford, sequenced DNA taken
from two unidentified animals killed in Himalaya ranges of India and
Bhutan in recent decades.
The small samples — including a single hair found a decade ago, and
the jawbone of a mummified animal discovered in the 1970s by a hunter —
were compared to a database of thousands of known animals, and the
results were intriguing.
The samples suggest, according to Sykes, that the animal many people
have reported seeing may be an unknown species of bear, related to an
extinct polar bear.
“This is a species that hasn’t been recorded for 40,000 years. Now,
we know one of these was walking around ten years ago. And what’s
interesting is that we have found this type of animal at both ends of
the Himalayas. If one were to go back, there would be others still
there,” Sykes told reporters.
Sykes believes the animal could be a hybrid descended from two
species of bear, an extinct polar bear and a closely related brown bear.
He said accounts of hunters, mountaineers and others who claim to
have seen a yeti, may have come face to face with an unknown bear that
acts strangely.
“The fact that the hunter, who had great experience of bears, thought
this one was in some way unusual and was frightened of it, makes me
wonder if this species of bear might behave differently. Maybe it is
more aggressive, more dangerous or is more bipedal than other bears,” he
said.
deeper mystery, according to an Oxford University geneticist who says he
has sequenced the mythic beast’s DNA and proved its existence.
For centuries, native people in the snow-peaked Himalaya Mountains
have described an elusive apelike animal that roams the range, and which
they call the yeti.
Bryan Sykes, a professor of genetics at Oxford, sequenced DNA taken
from two unidentified animals killed in Himalaya ranges of India and
Bhutan in recent decades.
The small samples — including a single hair found a decade ago, and
the jawbone of a mummified animal discovered in the 1970s by a hunter —
were compared to a database of thousands of known animals, and the
results were intriguing.
The samples suggest, according to Sykes, that the animal many people
have reported seeing may be an unknown species of bear, related to an
extinct polar bear.
“This is a species that hasn’t been recorded for 40,000 years. Now,
we know one of these was walking around ten years ago. And what’s
interesting is that we have found this type of animal at both ends of
the Himalayas. If one were to go back, there would be others still
there,” Sykes told reporters.
Sykes believes the animal could be a hybrid descended from two
species of bear, an extinct polar bear and a closely related brown bear.
He said accounts of hunters, mountaineers and others who claim to
have seen a yeti, may have come face to face with an unknown bear that
acts strangely.
“The fact that the hunter, who had great experience of bears, thought
this one was in some way unusual and was frightened of it, makes me
wonder if this species of bear might behave differently. Maybe it is
more aggressive, more dangerous or is more bipedal than other bears,” he
said.
