Alleged 'Bigfoot' DNA Samples Sequenced, Turn Out To Be Horses, Dogs, and Bears

sciencehabit writes: In North America, they're called Bigfoot or Sasquatch. In the Himalayan foothills, they're known as yeti or abominable snowmen. And Russians call them Almasty. But in the scientific laboratory, these elusive, hairy, humanoid creatures are nothing more than bears, horses, and dogs. That's the conclusion of a new study—the first peer-reviewed, genetic survey of biological samples claimed to be from the shadowy beasts. To identify the evolutionary source of each sample, the team determined the sequence of a gene—found inside the mitochondria of cells—that encodes the 12S RNA, which is often used for species identification. Unlike standard DNA, mitochondrial genes are passed only from mother to offspring.

Seven of the samples didn’t yield enough DNA for identification. Of the 30 that were sequenced, all matched the exact 12S RNA sequences for known species, the team reports online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Ten hairs belonged to various bear species; four were from horses; four were from wolves or dogs; one was a perfect match to a human hair; and the others came from cows, raccoons, deer, and even a porcupine. Two samples, from India and Bhutan, matched polar bear 12S RNA—a surprising finding that Sykes is following up on to determine whether some Himalayan bears are hybrid species with polar bears.

Comments

Re:Americans

[Archangel Michael]

AGW is Psuedo Science.. Every major prediction in the last 20 years has been completely falsified, yet plenty of people cling to it like a bible or a gun or something.

We should be many Degrees warmer and the Ice Sheets should be gone already, and flooding of Florida should nearly be complete. Don't forget about the Polar Bears Drowning ....

I look and see Piltdown Man all over again. "scientific consensus" means nothing, and isn't science.

Re:Nope

[Curunir_wolf]

" Don't forget about the Polar Bears Drowning ...." it's happening, although some of mating with brown bears and creating a new species.

You lose a lot of credibility repeating the fraudulent "polar bears in danger from AGW" claim. It's bogus. The polar bear population is no in danger, it's increasing. As far as specifically drowning / brown bear mating, those phenomenon have not changed significantly and have nothing to do with AGW.

4) Man spews giga-tonnes more CO2 then can be absorbed back into the system. This is becasue we dig up stored CO2 and release it in the air.

This shows a basic misinterpretation of the carbon cycle. CO2 does not stay around forever as CO2. Estimate range widely from somewhere around 5.4 years to 30 years or more. You can look at the NOAA's video that shows the fluctuating concentrations of CO2 and see the cycle is quite dynamic. Much of it is absorbed by the ocean and land sinks, but isotope studies point to the CO2 molecules from any point source are short-lived, and do rarely re-enter the atmosphere, if ever.

SO more CO2 in the air, more energy it absorbs. Energy(heat) continues to rise.

Maybe. Typically. Certainly in a closed system with no other cooling / heating effects going on. Sorry, but the science is not "settled", neither on the specific calculations on the global temperature for a given CO2 concentration, nor on the ways and amounts that human activities can impact the climate directly.