Kathmandu, November 29
A new research conducted by scientists from American and Asian universities has found that DNA samples supposed to be from extinct yeti were in fact from bears or dogs.
Yeti (abominable snowman) is an ape-like creature that is supposed to have existed in the Himalayas.
But, the research, after analysing nine samples collected from museums and private collections, found that eight samples were from bears while one was from dog.
The samples included bone, tooth, skin, hair and fecal samples collected in the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau.
“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,” lead scientist Charlotte Lindqvist, an associate professor of biological sciences in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, and a visiting associate professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), has been quoted in international media.
The team included Tianying Lan and Stephanie Gill from UB; Eva Bellemain from SPYGEN in France; Richard Bischof from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences; and Muhammad Ali Nawaz from Quaid-i-Azam University in Pakistan and the Snow Leopard Trust Pakistan programme.
Besides tracing the origins of the Yeti legend, Lindqvist’s work is said to have uncovered information about the evolutionary history of Asian bears.
