Science is rarely kind to “crypto-zoology,” which posits the existence of “hidden” creatures such as yeti, chupacabra, and Korean unicorns. It used to be that you could return from the weekend in the woods to regale your Sasquatch-hunting friends with tales of mysterious nocturnal sounds, a chase in the darkness, and—dramatically pulling a bag from your pocket—a tuft of the unseen creature’s hair that had caught on a tree branch! Maybe your friends believed; maybe they did not. But, in the end, who could say exactly what you might have found?

And then scientists came along, science-ing these kinds of wonderful stories into scientific oblivion using science-y mitochondrial and nuclear DNA testing of purported Sasquatch bits. Such results have never been kind to crypto-zoology, often turning up possum and human DNA rather than anything Sasquatch-y.

But, if I’m remembering my Alexander Pope correctly, humans love to keep looking for mysteries:

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Find a Sasquatch and you will be blest.

So people keep submitting samples to DNA analysis. In our newest case, an international team of researchers, headed by Dr. Charlotte Lindqvist of the State University of New York at Buffalo, sequenced the DNA gleaned from nine Tibetan and Himalayan “yeti” samples.

Where does one acquire yeti samples, you ask? In this case, they came from museums and private collections, including local monasteries. The samples, according to the university, included “a scrap of skin from the hand or paw of a ‘Yeti’—part of a monastic relic—and a fragment of femur bone from a decayed ‘Yeti’ found in a cave on the Tibetan Plateau.” Other material included teeth, hair, and “fecal samples.” (Two images of the items are below.)

Lindqvist is well-placed not just to run DNA analysis but to understand its results within a process of morphological diversification. That is, should she find something unusual in the samples, she and her team might be able to place it in its evolutionary context.

Sadly, this experience wasn’t necessary because the “yeti” samples turned out to be from an Asian black bear, one from a Himalayan brown bear, and six from Tibetan brown bears. The final sample came from a dog.

While the research found no new creatures, it did add to the theory that yeti stories emerged from primeval bear encounters among snowy mountains. “Our findings strongly suggest that the biological underpinnings of the Yeti legend can be found in local bears, and our study demonstrates that genetics should be able to unravel other, similar mysteries,” Lindqvist said.

The resulting article was published last month in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Listing image by University at Buffalo

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1237571