Oct 17, 2013

Yetis are real? Geneticist offers a plausible explanation

Yeti scalp
A alleged Yeti scalp on display at the Khumjung Monastery in Nepal.
(Credit: Nuno Nogueira)
The Yeti, Bigfoot's cold-climate cousin, is back in the limelight. There's no mysterious giant footprint or shaky video footage, but there is a well-regarded British geneticist at the center of it all. Bryan Sykes, a professor of human genetics at the University of Oxford, is featured in an upcoming documentary called "Bigfoot Files" on Channel 4 in the UK.
Ahead of the show's October 20 debut, Channel 4 released the news that Sykes conducted DNA research on hair samples purported to be from Yetis. What he claims to have found is a genetic match for an ancient polar bear.
The two hair samples came from different areas in the Himalayas, but matched up genetically with a 40,000-year-old polar bear jawbone found in Norway.
"This is an exciting and completely unexpected result that gave us all a surprise," Sykes said.

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