Science shifted: the yeti, the abominable snow bear? – 2 Photos
Would we drilled a little deeper into the mystery surrounding the yeti? Bryan Sykes, renowned geneticist at the University of Oxford has launched the project to analyze scientifically the elements supposed to come from this strange creature. His analysis, even partial, suggesting that the animal would be closer to the bear primate …
context: the myth of the yeti to the test of science
Who is the yeti? In the Tibetan tradition, the name associated with a bipedal creature scary, back a long time. In European culture, this concept came later, in the twentieth th century, when explorers began to face the snowy peaks of the Himalayas. Of indigenous testimony or abnormally large footprints have kept the legend of a bipedal and humanoid creature hidden in the mountains, and rarely seen.
Many adventurers have chased him and told a number of stories that are more myth than reality. Indeed, scientists doubt the existence of the Yeti. How do you explain that one has no rest and no complete and accurate observation, according to strict protocols, a creature yet so sought
Faced with various legends told, the geneticist Bryan Sykes, known to have worked on ancient DNA, had the idea of ??using modern biological techniques to analyze the supposed elements come the yeti. Such a method was used in 2008 and showed that the recovered hairs were actually a goat in the region. This time, the British had two samples: one collected there forty years by a French region of Ladakh in India and the other, later, in a bamboo forest in Bhutan. What would discover
study: DNA from polar bears in the hair of the yeti
Through a method he developed himself, he is able to extract good quality DNA from a single hair of the animal assumed. He focused on mitochondrial DNA, and more specifically on the region called 12S RNA, often used in the comparison of mammals. Then he compared the sequences with those collected in gene banks. One species has a region 100% identical to what was observed genome: a polar bear found in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, who lived here from 120,000 to 40,000 years
.What interpretation
give? The scientist is careful and does not advance on a slippery slope too. This study is preliminary and still demand for new data to be confirmed. Nevertheless, it is hypothesized that the yeti might be confused with a bear, specifically a subspecies of brown bear unknown, which would unusual behavior and a significant propensity to bipedalism, if you believe the descriptions made. Could it be some sort of hybrid? This is one of the preferred paths.
external eye: the caution is
To date, no scientific paper has been published, but it is precisely being studied by a peer-review. If the analysis seems serious, and uses indisputable scientific techniques, which is rarely the case when talking about the Yeti, so it does not need to lose too fast guesses. The samples in question have not been collected by researchers, which should encourage vigilance. However, the stated aim is simply to test what is supposed to characterize the creature. If the hair actually come from what is taken for the abominable snow man, then it should revise its possible classification.
To provide more meaningful conclusions, the best thing to do would be to observe the animal in real life. But is it even possible?
——————————–
Why Science section shifted? This weekly column aims to show that science can be fun and unexpected, and especially that it really fathom all conceivable areas. Thus, it can do serious with wacky, and humor with subjects just laughable priori. So each week, we select the information most surprising or strange for you to share it on Sunday, between the cheese and dessert.
On the same topic
No comments:
Post a Comment