Bigfoot and Yeti DNA Study Gets Serious

LiveScience ^ | 22 May 2012 | Jeanna Bryner

[Theoria]

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 are asking anyone with a collection of cryptozoological material to submit descriptions of it. The researchers will then ask for hair and other samples for genetic identification.

"I'm challenging and inviting the cryptozoologists to come up with the evidence instead of complaining that science is rejecting what they have to say," said geneticist Bryan Sykes of the University of Oxford.

While Sykes doesn't expect to find solid evidence of a yeti or Bigfoot monster, he says he is keeping 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.

"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 told LiveScience. Such hominids would include Neanderthals or Denosivans, a mysterious hominin species that lived in Siberia 40,000 years ago.

"That would be the optimal outcome," Sykes said.

The project is called the Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project. It is being led by Sykes and Michel Sartori of the zoology museum.

[mkmensinger]

Bigfoot might not be too cooperative about giving a dna sample.

[mardi59]

Oh heck, we all found bigfoot years ago, Janet Reno. Now we have a new one....Napolitano.

[exDemMom]

I saw a bigfoot print in a snowbank in Yellowstone Park last week. It was at least 14 inches long, and the toes had a spread of about 6 inches.

I suspect a DNA analysis would reveal that it was a grizzly bear print. But it’s so much more fun to say I saw evidence of a bigfoot!

[I see my hands]

"a mysterious hominid species that lived in Siberia"

What, they all looked like Alfred Hitchcock?

[Perdogg]

ping

[Figment]

Don’t you have to find some type of remains (body,fur,bones, turd) to do a DNA test on? My guess is, they will be testing a lot of bear dna

[dsrtsage]

Sounds like a much better use of research funding than global warming, though in order to be properly funded, they will have to somehow show that bigfoots and yetis are endangered by global warming

[varmintman]

The hominids we know the most about, particularly the Neanderthal, were carnivores and the Neanderthal was a total carnivore. Anything like that surviving to this day would leave a trail of bones and blood and gore behind him which wouldn't be terribly hard to track, there'd be people and farm animals going missing all over the place. This is what Neanderthals looked like, coutesy of www.themandus.org:

The ONLY way a hominid could live elusively today would be if he'd learned to survive on pine needles.

[Morgana]

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Perdogg, will ping this when I’m back where I can.

[GeronL]

Harry, Curly and Larry provided the DNA for comparisons?

[a fool in paradise]

This is series, it’s a university backed project!

[stormer]

Extant hominids are primarily fructivorous, not carnivorous. And while Neanderthal was fundamentally a meat eater, that may exaplin why you don't see many of them now days.

[Noob1999]

...................anyone with a collection of cryptozoological material to submit descriptions of it..............

Unfortunately, “cryptozoological material” for the YETI has deteriorated so much due to CO2 exposure over the past decade, that no definitive results can be studied.

However, with the UN $$$ funding of the laser cross transference LED beam isotope deep earth cognitive electrolytic gamma ray isolating neutron emitter technology we should be able to identify YETI excrement.

The UN needs your government $$$$$$$$$$ immediately before this elusive mammal goes extinct!

[Jack Hydrazine]

I tohught Curly Q. Link was the missing link!

[higgmeister]

They would have a better chance of DNA testing the “Loch Moose Monster!”

[campaignPete R-CT]

DEFINItely ADD me to the series Bigfoot pinger list. but not the yeti ping list. Only series articles please. Do not wanna be on the bigfoot joke ping lists.

I needs to git me some news somewhere. C2C starts at 1 a.m. here out east, and I just gotta get me some sleep so refuse to listen so I am missin’ da bigfoot news.

[Inyo-Mono]

Thanks for the article. What most people don’t realize, especially those living in crowded cities, is that some 60% of the Earth has only been photographed from aircraft and satellites and remains completely unexplored by man. Folks that laugh at the idea of Bigfoot and Yeti haven’t spent any time, except for watching the occasional TV show, reading and investigating the possibility.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Perdogg. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[garjog]

[BigEdLB]

Tropical - Temperate ....One from Hawaii, and One from Delaware...

[garjog]

[Gator113]

If Obama has a son, he would............

[SunkenCiv]

Big Foot Prints a Scientific Inquiry by Grover S. Krantz Hardcover	Bigfoot Sasquatch: Evidence by Grover S. Krantz	Sasquatch Odyssey: The Hunt for Bigfoot Starring Rene Dahinden, John Green, Dr. Grover Krantz, et al	Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America by Loren Coleman Kindle edition

[marsh2]

Oh heck yeh - He lives here. You can see him in this picture (2/3 way down page) http://www.happycampchamber.org/visitors-information.php
There’s a jamboree and fair for him every year

Java Bob’s got a website on his adventures tracking him:
http://www.thebigfootreport.com/2012/03/bigfoot-evidence-robert-schmalzbach.html

[varmintman]

An ape or hominid isn't going to have a noticeable chin or a waist like that. The Neanderthal's rib cage just kept getting wider the further down, again images courtesy themandus.org and without the ice-age fur coat for illustration purposes:

[Alas Babylon!]

OK, I don’t care who you are, that is just plain hilarious!

[21twelve]

Years ago I used an older guy, a game warden here in Washington State, to help me with field work. He called in one day saying he couldn’t help me as they got a report from some lady that saw something big and hairy climb over her barbed wire fence. And he and a guy from the university were going down to investigate and grab a hair sample she said was caught in the fence.

He said they did see some messed up tracks and got some hair that was probably just a bear. Although I don’t recall hearing about bears climbing over fences. Regardless, I found it interesting that the state would pay (presumably?) for two guys to travel 3-4 hours one way just because some lady reported a bigfoot.

[SunkenCiv]

There’s lots of cover, lots of water, lots of food, I’m not surprised that they may be in there, not least because the anecdotes antedate Columbus.

[mo]

Any Federal monies behind THIS scam?

[ZX12R]

The only bigfoot that exists, is the beef jerky (made for TV) one in your picture. But the gullible will cling adamantly to the belief that there are real ones out there somewhere.

[SuzyQue]

I’m not sure which critter this is based on, but it’s not a Neanderthal...

[varmintman]

In fact it is. Simplest explanation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZbmywzGAVs

[varmintman]

You likely didn’t notice but I did mention that last image I posted was without the 6” ice-age fur coat for illustration purposes. In real life, all ice-animals including the Neanderthal had thick and long fur.

[SuzyQue]

Well, it’s hard to argue with something with no facts...

[varmintman]

Neanderthal DNA is halfway between ours and that of a chimpanzee, that's the most major fact in the picture. Scientists have no qualms about presenting every other hominid as glorified apes but the Neanderthal has been a sort of a poster child for kum-bay-ah religion, thus it comes as a sort of a shock to many of them when the Neanderthal also turns out to be a glorified ape. Best resource on the web is Vendramini's:

www.themandus.org

I've got problems with Vendramini's thesis about SQ hominids punk-eeking into Cro Magnons, but what he has to say about Neanderthals is perfectly logical.

[TheOldLady]

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[gopheraj]

Not saying there are or aren’t sasquatches BUT how many bear carcasses or leavings from a big carnivore type animal (wolf, bear etc) do people find in the deep woods? There should be bones gore and blood from their meals as well.

[SuzyQue]

No, it’s really not...

[exDemMom]

I’m not sure which critter this is based on, but it’s not a Neanderthal...

Actually, it *is* rather loosely based on a neanderthal skull. The images were made by an artist who apparently has little to no anatomical training. There was a thread on this a while back.

[SuzyQue]

I missed that thread.

[eartrumpet]

He is a movie special effects guy. No surprise his recreation comes out looking like a movie monster with the head hooked onto the spine wrong.

[SuzyQue]

Ah... It is a very impressive looking movie monster.

[exDemMom]

Here it is:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2860792/posts

As I and several others pointed out, those images were light on science and heavy on fiction.