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Bigfoot and Yeti DNA Study Gets Serious

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  • Bigfoot and Yeti DNA Study Gets Serious


    I have long been interested in Bigfoot. While I don't understand how a breeding population could exist in the Pacific Northwest without real detection by now, as opposed to isolated sightings, or how they could exist without actual remains ever being found, I do confess I have found some of the sightings reported credible, rather then bears standing upright, etc. But, that's me, I've long been attracted to the anomalous.
    Rhode Island

  • #2
    I've always had an open mind about this type of thing.  Never could rule out the possibility.  Used to say that I have never seen a Yeti/Bigfoot and that's what it would take for me to believe.  I've changed my mind.  I have realized, IMO, seeing is not always believing.  Whole lotta' things can make a person believe.  An interesting article.  The artist's sketch of what this beast may look like is interesting.

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    • #3
      Stranger things have happened, I as well like to keep an open mind but like you said Charlie, how is it there has been no proof yet? I suppose it's possible, and yes, some of the accounts appear on the surface at least to have some degree of credibility. The other creature that comes to mind is the Jersey Devil. Strange stories!!
      Southern Connecticut

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      • #4
        Don't forget the chupacabra as well? I kinda of dismiss it for the same reasons, credible proof, but? Who knows what wanders around out there in the thick, dense, minimally populated areas of this planet. Still a lot of things we don't know and have yet to discover.
        When we lived in a rural area between Ann Arbor and Flint Mi. outside of Detroit, we came across some bear tracks in one of the gravel roads. Took pictures, showed and told others about it and all told us we were crazy, "There are no bears down here". Within the week, there was one of those bear traps parked at the end of a dead end road just a few blocks down from us. Okay, no bears down here but now there is a bear trap, don't know what happened or if they caught a bear. But goes to show, you never know!
        Searching the fields of NW Indiana and SW Michigan

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        • #5
          The prime candidate for Yeti legends (and possible candidate for Bigfoot) has been an isolated relict population of the extinct giant ape Gigantopithecus, for which three species are known to have existed, with G. blacki being the largest at maybe 10 feet tall and weighing in at 1200lbs. Although its extinction might have been as recent as 100,000 years ago (so it was contemporary with modern humans), its habitat was SE Asia and it is not known in America. It could theoretically have crossed the Bering land bridge. Fossils are limited, but the jaw shape suggests a windpipe anatomy that would have allowed it to walk upright on two legs, although it’s size and weight suggests it would usually have been on all fours like a gorilla.
          Apart from modern claimed sightings and footprints, there are revered relics of various kinds – notably a scalp (below) and a mummified hand at Pangboche monastery in Khumjung, Nepal. Before DNA typing was available, the “scalp” was tentatively identified in the 1950’s as from the shoulder region of a coarse-haired hoofed animal – probably a Yak not a Yeti. In 1957 American oil baron Tom Slick funded a Yeti expedition and one of its members - Peter Byrne – eventually persuaded the monks at Pangboche to show him the hand. He recalls being led through candle-lit halls to the room where it is kept to photograph it (below). The monastery refused to allow its removal for study or surrender any part of it for analysis.

          Yeti scalp at Pangboche monastery [Image by Nonu Nogueira - Creative Commons license]

          Yeti hand at Pangboche monastery [Image by Peter Byrne, 1958 - Unexplained-Mysteries website]
          The story according to Byrne is that Slick (in India at the time) and he exchanged messages within which Slick indicated his desperation to obtain the hand. They later met in the restaurant at London Zoo with Professor William Osman Hill – an expert primatologist employed there – with whom Slick had discussed the possibility of identification. During the meal Osman Hill allegedly reached under the table, brought out a brown paper bag and tipped a severed embalmed human hand onto the table, prompting Slick to comment: “I take it that’s not dessert?”
          A plan was hatched whereby a portion of the Yeti hand would be taken and replaced with a piece from the human hand. When Byrne returned to the monastery, he claims to have persuaded the monks to part with a finger for 100 Pounds (Sterling) providing he could convincingly disguise the missing digit. He says that he wired a human finger on to the relic, and painted it with iodine to match up the colour.
          Byrne trekked across the border to India but was uncomfortable about getting the finger to London by plane without awkward questions. Slick had the solution. The actor James Stewart (an old hunting buddy) was on holiday in Calcutta at the time and – after meeting at the Grand Hotel with Byrne – Stewart’s wife Gloria smuggled it out in her lingerie case. This is confirmed in a letter written by Stewart after the event. The finger was assessed by Osman Hill as “not human” but he was unable to say much more and nothing was heard of it subsequently.
          Several attempts at DNA analysis on fragments believed to have been obtained from  Byrne have proved inconclusive – most recently for a 1991 NBC documentary. Immediately after that, the original hand was stolen from the monastery and reportedly disappeared into a private collection via the black market.
          Then in 2008 a forgotten specimen bequeathed to the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London by Osman Hill was discovered languishing in the vaults and came to the attention of BBC reporter Matthew Hill. It was labelled “yeti finger from Pangboche hand” and Byrne confirmed it to be the finger he had obtained.

          Yeti finger on display at Royal College of Surgeons Museum [Image from Daily Mail]
          Hill’s request for a tiny sliver to be subjected to modern DNA analysis by experts in Edinburgh was granted and the results were announced live during a BBC Radio documentary, aired at 11am on 28th December last year. I tuned in. It’s human – not Yeti. :laugh:
          But it’s a good yarn, isn’t it?
          I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

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          • #6
            Rather gruesome.  Makes me cringe.

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            • #7
              Fscinating story, Roger. Thank you. Had never heard the Jimmy Stewart angle before.
              Rhode Island

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              • #8
                Love them Big Foot tales  :woohoo:

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                • #9
                  That is cool! Thank you for posting the article.
                  I have always been interested in bigfoot and the yeti. About a month ago I saw something that I couldn't explain.
                  My husband and I were going to a gun show and we were driving through the country about 20 miles north of us. I saw a very tall dark colored something walking out across the field. It was at a pretty good distance away but whatever it was was walking differently than a man would and was totaly dark colored. It was a fairly warm day so I don't think it was a man wearing coveralls or anything and it just walked odd as I said. I told my husband to stop but by the time he did it had disappeared into the woods. Only time I've ever seen anything like it and sure would like to know what it was.

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                  • #10
                    Thanks for your opinions, folks. Laura, that's interesting, too bad you didn't get a closer look.
                    One of the things I always found interesting is that the native peoples in the Pacific Northwest had a belief in Sasquatch long before the area was settled by Westerners. I think there is something real behind the sightings. Not all, of course, but there have been too many close hand accounts for me to say "no way!"
                    Rhode Island

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                    • #11
                      :unsure: Those descriptions sound like you are talking about my first ex-wife!

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                      • #12
                        Butch Wilson wrote:

                        :unsure: Those descriptions sound like you are talking about my first ex-wife!
                          I know what you mean Butch LMAO  :woohoo:

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                        • #13
                          Butch Wilson wrote:

                          :unsure: Those descriptions sound like you are talking about my first ex-wife!
                            Thanks Butch! Coffee and cereal on the screen!  inch:  :laugh:

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                          • #14
                            Butch Wilson wrote:

                            :unsure: Those descriptions sound like you are talking about my first ex-wife!
                               hmy: I should send you my, "Bigfoot/Yeti Rock", in "memory!"  haha

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                            • #15
                              The strange case of the Yeti finger is one of the most intriguing tales in the cryptozoo world.  However, the yeti finger, notoriously smuggled out of Asia by acting professional Jimmy Stewart, was recently tested for DNA by researchers. It turns out the well-known yeti finger is really from a man. Read more..

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