Bigfoot and Yeti DNA Study Gets Serious...
A call is out for supposed Big Foot material so university scientists can do genetic testing
- 22 May 2012
- by Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor
THE GIST
- Scientists ha request cryptozoologists send them material supposedly from cryptic species.
- They plan to conduct genetic analysis of the material.
- The call is a challenge to those who claim science rejects such claims.
Artist's interpretation of Bigfoot. Click to enlarge this image. Karl Tate, LiveScience Infographic Artist
A new, university-backed project, aims to investigate cryptic species such as the yeti, whose existence is unproven, through genetic testing.
Researchers from Oxford University, and the Lausanne Museum of Zoology, ask anyone with a collection of cryptozoological material submit descriptions of it.
Researchers will then ask for hair, and other samples, for genetic identification.
"I'm challenging, and inviting, cryptozoologists to come up with evidence, instead of complaining science rejects what they have to say," says geneticist, Bryan Sykes, of the University of Oxford.
[Rate the Bigfoot Evidence in These Images]
While Sykes doesn't expect to find solid evidence of a Yeti or Bigfoot monster, he says he keeps an open mind, and hopes to identify, perhaps 20, of the suspect samples.
Along the way, he'd be happy if he found some unknown species.
(Rumor or Reality: The Creatures of Cryptozoology)
"It would be wonderful if one or more turned out to be species we don't know about, maybe primates, maybe even collateral hominids," Sykes says.
Such hominids would include Neanderthals or Denosivans, a mysterious hominin species who lived in Siberia 40,000 years ago.
"That would be the optimal outcome," Sykes says.
The project is called the Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project, led by Sykes and Michel Sartori, of the zoology museum.
[New Bigfoot Sightings: Proof Still Lacking]
Origin of a Legend
The story of a big, hairy monster of the Himalayas stomped into popular culture in 1951, when British mountaineer, Eric Shipton, returned from a Mount Everest expedition with photographs of giant footprints in the snow.
The cryptic creature goes by many names in many places: yeti or migoi in the Himalayas, Bigfoot or Sasquatch in the United States and Canada, respectively; almasty in the Caucasus Mountains; orag pendek in Sumatra.
(Infographic: Tracking Belief in Bigfoot)
While reports of such creatures have abounded around the world since then, there is no physical proof they exist; the reports inevitably turn out to be of a civet, bear, or other known beast.
Yeti hairs
Sykes doesn't want to start receiving loads of skin, hair, or other samples haphazardly, so he is asking people to send detailed descriptions of their "yeti" samples.
Once he and his colleagues have looked over the details — including physical descriptions of the sample (even photographs), its origin and ideas about the likely species it belongs to — they will send a sampling kit for those deemed suitable for study.
"As an academic, I have certain reservations about entering this field, but I think, using genetic analysis, is entirely objective; it can't be falsified," Sykes says.
"I don't have to put myself into the position of either believing or disbelieving these creatures."
One theory about the yeti is, it belongs to small, relic populations of other hominids, such as Neanderthals or Denisovans.
While Sykes says this idea is unlikely to be proven true, "If you don't look, you won't find it."
The collection phase of the project will run through September, with genetic testing following it through November.
After that, Sykes says, they will write up the results for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal; this would be the first such publication of cryptozoology results.
"Several things I've done in my career have seemed impossible and stupid when contemplated, but have impressive results," Sykes says.
When he set out to find DNA from ancient human remains, he thought, "It's never going to work."
It did, and he published the first report of DNA from ancient human bones in the journal, Nature, in 1989.
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