This story just will not go away. DNA tests prove one thing. More DNA tests by others...well, I think the point is that this is why hair or other material that requires these tests should
not be handled by just one lab, no matter how prestigious.
This is what BBC News online had to report
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-30479718
I did delete the image from the Patterson film and reference to hoaxers using Gorilla suits!
By Steven McKenzie
BBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter
It had been proposed that hairs said to be from the yeti matched the DNA of ancient polar bears
A theory that the mythical yeti is a rare polar bear-brown bear hybrid animal has been challenged.
Last year, Oxford University genetics professor Bryan Sykes
revealed the results of DNA tests on hairs said to be from the
Abominable Snowman.
The tests matched the samples with the DNA of an ancient polar bear.
But two other scientists have said re-analysis of the same
data shows the hairs belong to the Himalayan bear, a sub-species of the
brown bear.
The results of the new research by Ceiridwen Edwards and Ross
Barnett have been published in the Royal Society journal, Proceedings
of the Royal Society B.
Among Dr Edwards' previous work was an attempt to carry out
DNA analysis of a sample taken from bones of a polar bear washed into
caves in north west Scotland 18,000 years ago.
A sub species of the brown bear could be behind the Himalayan myth
According to legend, the yeti is a large and elusive ape-like beast.
For many years experts have been seeking a scientific explanation for the Abominable Snowman.
Prof Sykes, along with other genetics experts, conducted DNA
tests on hairs from two unidentified animals, one from Ladakh - in
northern India on the west of the Himalayas - and the other from Bhutan,
800 miles (1,285km) further east.
The results were then compared with the genomes of other animals stored on a database of all published DNA sequences.
The scientists found that he had a 100% match with a sample
from an ancient polar bear jawbone found in Svalbard, Norway, that dates
back to between 40,000 and 120,000 years ago - a time when the polar
bear and closely-related brown bear were separating as different
species.
The species are closely related and are known to interbreed where their territories overlap.
Experts have sought scientific explanations to the yeti legend
The sample from Ladakh came from the mummified remains of a
creature shot by a hunter around 40 years ago, while the second sample
was in the form of a single hair, found in a bamboo forest by an
expedition of filmmakers about 10 years ago.
The samples were subjected to the most advanced tests available.
Prof Sykes said the most likely explanation for the myth was that the animal was a hybrid of polar bears and brown bears.
The research was
reported widely by the media last year and, in July this year,
published by the Royal Society.
However, following re-analysis of the same data, Dr Edwards
and Dr Barnett argue that the hybrid bear does not exist in the
Himalayas.
They said the previous research mistakenly matched DNA to an ancient Pleistocene polar bear, instead of a modern polar bear.
In their paper, Dr Edwards and Dr Barnett said their tests identified the hairs as being from a rare type of brown bear.
The scientists said: "The Himalayan bear is a sub-species of
the brown bear that lives in the higher reaches of the Himalayas, in
remote, mountainous areas of Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and India.
"Its populations are small and isolated, and it is extremely rare in many parts of its range.
"The common name for these bears in the region is Dzu-teh, a
Nepalese term meaning 'cattle bear', and they have long been associated
with the myth of the yeti."
Prof Sykes and the other members of the team behind the earlier
yeti hairs analysis have acknowledged that there was an error caused by
an incomplete search of the DNA database used.
However, they said in a statement: "Importantly, for the
thrust of the paper as a whole, the conclusion that these Himalayan
'yeti' samples were certainly not from a hitherto unknown primate is
unaffected."
The response added: "We stressed in the original paper that
the true identity of this intriguing animal needs to be refined,
preferably by sequence data from fresh tissue samples derived from a
living specimen where DNA degradation is no longer a concern."
Other hair samples said to belong to the yeti have been scrutinised by experts before.
In 2008, scientists in the US examined hairs given to the BBC which some had claimed were from a yeti.
The scientists concluded that the hairs - obtained from the
north-east Indian state of Meghalaya - actually belonged to a species of
Himalayan goat known as a Himalayan goral.
Dr Edwards has previously attempted to unlock the secrets of polar bear remains found in Scotland
In 2007, Dr Edwards began a process to extract DNA from what
are believed to be the only polar bear remains to be found in Britain.
The skull, of which only a part survives, was discovered at the Bone Caves in Inchnadamph, in Assynt, Sutherland, in 1927.
Prehistoric remains of animals - including an almost complete
skeleton of a brown bear - and humans have been uncovered in the caves.
Dr Edwards hoped to shed light on what the polar bear was doing in Assynt 18,000 years ago.
However,
DNA had not survived in the bone fragment.
Dr Edwards was also involved in a DNA study of ancient brown bear bones that suggested
the maternal ancestors of modern polar bears were from Ireland.
Previously, it was believed that today's polar bears were
most closely related to brown bears living on islands off the coast of
Alaska.
