Genetic analysis of hairs claimed to have come from a ‘bigfoot’ have been matched to samples of less mythical animals such as bears.
Rather than dismissing cryptozoology and the claims of ‘sasquatches’ or ‘yetis’ out of hand, a team of researchers from Oxford University and the Museum of Zoology in Lausanne, Switzerland, together making up the Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project, solicited for samples that could be forensically examined to determine whether there was any truth behind the claims.
While ‘bigfoot hunters’ may have hoped the 30 samples donated would point to an undiscovered human or ape ancestor, in a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B the researchers found that the majority of the hairs were from sheep, horses, cows, humans, with ‘hair’ made of fibreglass.
However, two Himalayan samples, one from Ladakh, India, the other from Bhutan, had their closest genetic affinity with a Palaeolithic polar bear, Ursus maritimus, that lived 40,000 years ago.
The sample from India was reportedly from a bear shot 40 years ago by an experienced hunter, raising the possibility that an undiscovered descendent of this ancient polar bear has survived in the Himalayas, and its behaviour could be the basis of abominable snowman myths in the region.
