Genetic analysis of hair samples attributed to yeti, bigfoot and other anomalous primates

Abstract

In the first ever systematic genetic survey, we have used rigorous decontamination followed by mitochondrial 12S RNA sequencing to identify the species origin of 30 hair samples attributed to anomalous primates. Two Himalayan samples, one from Ladakh, India, the other from Bhutan, had their closest genetic affinity with a Palaeolithic polar bear, Ursus maritimus. Otherwise the hairs were from a range of known extant mammals.

Molecular analysis of ‘anomalous primate’ hair samples: a commentary on Sykes et al.

“…On a more general note, and as the Sykes et al [2] report mentions in its last paragraph, this type of analysis opens the way for cryptozoologists and mainstream biological zoologists to enter into a productive dialogue. Cryptozoologists must now either accept the findings of the Sykes team or show where they are in error.…”

“…The results of such tests on a series of 37 hair samples reported anecdotally to come from cryptozoological species is the subject of the Sykes et al [2] article in this issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society. These 37 samples were a subset of 58 samples submitted to the Sykes team for analysis.…”

Himalayan ‘yeti’ DNA: polar bear or DNA degradation? A comment on ‘Genetic analysis of hair samples attributed to yeti’ by Sykes et al . (2014)

“…Based on 104 base pairs of the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal RNA gene, Sykes et al [1] identified two Himalayan samples of hair, from Ladakh (India) and Bhutan, respectively, as belonging to the species Ursus maritimus ( polar bear). The authors claim that these samples have the closest genetic affinity to a Palaeolithic polar bear from Spitsbergen, Svalbard [2].…”

“…All 36 polar bear from GenBank, including the Pleistocene individual (P), have a T base at this position, although, as can be seen in figure 1, a number of brown bear also have a T. Other bears either have a C base or a deletion. The brown bears that share the T mutation with the Sykes et al [1] 'polar bears' include five modern bears from the ABC Islands off Alaska (GU573486, GU573487, GU573489, JX196368 and JX196369 [2,5]; haplotype D in figure 1). This is unsurprising as the ABC brown bears share a matrilineal common ancestor with polar bears around 24 000 years ago [6].…”

“…sequences generated in Sykes et al [1] and compared them with data deposited in GenBank. We undertook a BLAST search using KJ155697 (hair 25025) as the search query and downloaded all accessions with 100% query cover (i.e.…”