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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.
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.
That is what Sasquatch wants you to believe by placing DNA from other sources!!!!
Now excuse me, I see I need to go out and spay those nasty chemtrails again. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?... )
From making more BS shows about something that doesn't exist, and people selling books on fabricated facts.
UFOs, Bigfoot, Ghosts!
...
You would think the modern age of cameras in everyone's phones would produce evidence-a-plenty of these kinds of things.
But reality is far less interesting than we want it to be
No magic, no supernatural stuff --- and sadly no bigfoots or aliens that bother to come here and snatch cows.
Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J...
Well, Russians are calling it the Snow Man. Almasty is what it's called in Caucasus - Chechnya and so on. Just saying.
The logical explanation is that Bigfoot has no mitochondria, and that the results obtained are from contamination. Scientists really shouldn't bring their pet polar bears to the lab.
Oh my!
It wasn't ManBearPig it was ManBearHorseDog! Quickly someone let Al Gore know!
Om, nomnomnom...
Edit: the name of the book was "Alive!" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...
I'm guessing you've never been to EU, Russia, Africa or Asia. Paranormal crap is even bigger business in Asia and Africa than it is in the US, pseudoscience outshines the US in many Asian nations, and autism by vaccines is pretty much equal universally across this rock(I take this as a fair point that no matter how smart someone claims to be, stupidity is a universal trait). I'm surprised that you didn't get in with "fattest nation" but then you'd be talking about Mexico.
Om, nomnomnom...
Chupacabra isn't included.
foot... that's how elusive they're!!
Channel 4 put out a three-part documentary series about this research last year, called Bigfoot Files. Depending on the episode you got a mixture of local legends, interviews with bigfoot chasers, and of course the search for and testing of the putative hominid remains. The article mentions that one of the samples tested as human; there's a rather heartbreaking local tale behind that. Very nicely done and desensationalised.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Have you seen the movie adaptation of the same name? I can't speak for accuracy as I haven't read the book but it was very engaging.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
This is just an anecdote, but anyway. When we had our first child, I was in serveral lectures about child upbringing and first aid and similar. One was in Frankfurt(Main), Germany, by a physician who strongly opposed vaccination and had lots of graphs and pictures to support his stance. He didn't mention the vaccination-autism-connection, because that seems to never have caused the big craze in Germany as in the U.S. and U.K.. But the people there didn't seem to be of the religious type (Religion isn't that big in Germany anyway, especially not in large urban regions), but more of the wealthy non-conformist affiliation.
It's human on its father's side.
Even here, they've managed to mix in some horse!
RNA and mitochondrial DNA are two different things, I thought?
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Bigfoot has shape shifting abilities. That would explain why there is so little evidence of his existence. A shape shifting big foot turns the big foot is a robot theory on its ear.
Seriously, we have never found any corpses from this beast and with the amount that man has spread out, I am 100% certain we would have found the beast by now.
No matter where you go, there you are.
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.
While it may look like a waste of time searching for bigfoot, something unexpected and interesting was found.
Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
judging on the '-1' score neither group has sense of humor
So bigfoot turns out to be manbearpig. Didn't see that coming.
When people ask if I'm an optimist, I say "I hope so". --Bill Bailey
You're talking about Ruby Rhod, right?
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
our new horsedogbear overlords.
The mystery continues.
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
The anti-vaccine crazies have been around for decades. Well before wakefield committed fraud and illegal experimentation on children.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The general description of Bigfoot matches a large bear standing upright. Which they can do. Horses and Dogs are far less believable to be mistaken for Bigfoot, but possible depending on where they were found. A large wolf in the Himalayas might be when visibility is low. But I can't see how someone could mistake a Horse as Bigfoot. Even in extreme conditions.
Legendary alpinist Reinhold Messner once wrote a book about his encounters with suspected Yetis in the Himalaya. He concluded that they were bears, a variant of Ursus Arctos, the same species as polar bears.
Have you read my blog lately?
+1 Scary Ignorant.
RNA and mitochondrial DNA are two different things, I thought?
They studied the DNA sequence of the RNA that comes from the Mitochondrial ribosome (which has it's own DNA / RNA and ribosomes).
You misspelled "yet".
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Horses, dogs, and bears; oh my!
Table-ized A.I.
cousin to the infamous man-bear-pig
" 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.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
... just how deep the conspiracy goes!
.. (Religion isn't that big in Germany anyway,...
Ya, I bet it's hard to be religious in a country that has in most recent history tried to eradicate a religious population. You just don't know when your religion is going to be next...
Be seeing you...
An article talked about over the years people make claims they've done some incredible feats mostly unintended. Like someone going too fast on a skateboard off a ledge, board separates from rider, board bounces off a wall, lands on hand railing at same time rider lands on board, which then by chance the angle was just right the rider was able to smoothly land on clear surface and come to a controlled stop. Yeah right, oh wait! A friend got it on the phone and it's gone viral on FB!
OK, so where's the space aliens, Bigfoot, and Nessie?
mfwright@batnet.com
sorry for OT but I could not pass this one up. You can here NORAD air defense command center, their callword is Bigfoot, on these frequencies, http://home.comcast.net/~kilow...
I actually have heard Bigfoot, NORAD's ATC base giving vectors for what I believe was a KC135, I scan the freq regularly. Not much traffic but occasionally hear something.
mfwright@batnet.com
The original study linking vaccination to autism was from the UK. The press has really overstated the anti-vaxer thing in the US. I don't remember the exact statistic, but close to 99% of American children are vaccinated (at least partially). Most of the ones who aren't are clustered in immigrant communities, that's why we see the outbreaks. It poses no threat to the general population.
Ya, I bet it's hard to be religious in a country that has in most recent history tried to eradicate a religious population. You just don't know when your religion is going to be next...
Of course, it's equally likely that the next scapegoat for all society's ills will be atheists and secularists -- moral decay leading to the breakdown of the family, and messing up the financial markets with their joint loans hitting divorce; sex outside marriage leading to single-parent families, hence benefit claims; unmarried co-habiting couples pushing up the price of housing...
Not that I believe any of this -- the above is just a portfolio piece that I can use in my job application when the next great dictator wants a minister for propaganda. :-)
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
In 2012, researchers at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and the Museum of Zoology in Lausanne, Switzerland, put out a call for hair samples thought to be from anomalous primates
Correct me if I'm wrong, after all I'm only an American, but those places aren't in America?
Did they call for the hairs because they believed they would be genuine bigfoots, or to prove that they weren't...?
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
The review was reviewed by a crack team of scientists at the University of Halabalaga. The reason for the findings are that Yeti/Bigfoot RNA is made up of horse, bear, porcupine, wolves and dogs, is the Yeti/Bigfoot are a cross between horse, bear, porcupine, wolves and dogs. I'd like to thank the academics and researchers at the University for their cracker jack work, and wish them well in the continued research and pursuit of these elusive creatures.
Don't forget about the Polar Bears Drowning ....
If the polar bears aren't having trouble in the North Pole, why have they all started moving to Tibet to f*ck the yetis?
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
The original study linking vaccination to autism was from the UK. The press has really overstated the anti-vaxer thing in the US. I don't remember the exact statistic, but close to 99% of American children are vaccinated (at least partially). Most of the ones who aren't are clustered in immigrant communities, that's why we see the outbreaks. It poses no threat to the general population.
It poses a threat because these terrible ideas of the anti-vaxers get picked up by legitimate sources sometimes. And there are people who can't tell the difference between legitimate science and junk science. Ideas can spread more virulently and rapidly than real diseases. The antivax ideas are a threat, even if the effects of their actions aren't causing significant problems at this moment.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Having visited around in various parts of Europe, I think what's going on in parochialism and insularity. That is, there is a LOT of religion in Germany, however it's not seen if you're never look outside your social circles or regions. That is, the people in cities tend to think that the entire country has the same social atmosphere. But get outside into villages and smaller towns and the feeling is much different. Everywhere you look there are churches, which is not a surprise since many are a thousand years old, but also those churches are still in use. Even inside the cities, show up on Sunday morning and you'll see a stream of people still showing up and entering the cathedrals.
Germany actually feels more religious than some of it's neighbors (in the west anyway, not sure what former East Germany is like).
I think people are the same almost everywhere. People like to look at the US as the home of the irrational people, but in reality if you compare people you will see the full spectrum represented everywhere. It's just that some societies are tilted slightly one way and some are tilted slightly the other way.
For example, everyone just assumes that California is a radically liberal liberal state, full of hippies, druggies, peaceniks, etc. Like we're all one big Berkeley. But really California is very evenly divided politically, it just happens to leaning to the left a bit more than other states with a few more democrat votes in the capitol (though the governor's office swings between the parties very often). We probably have far more libertarians than we do socialists.
Similarly, I've seen far more overtly homophobic and racist speech in Europe than I've seen in America (after a few drinks at least).
Wow. Mods on this are pretty telling. +1 Informative, +1 Interesting, -1 Overrated, -1 Troll, -1 Troll
AGW really is like a religion.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Their ideas are wrong, but they're hardly a threat. Most people don't take them seriously, and only 80-95% (depending on the disease) of a population needs to be immunized to achieve herd immunity.
Their ideas are wrong, but they're hardly a threat. Most people don't take them seriously, and only 80-95% (depending on the disease) of a population needs to be immunized to achieve herd immunity.
I think you are grossly underestimating the ability of people to be complete morons. This link is a little dated, but in 1999, a poll showed that 18 percent of Americans think the Sun revolves around the Earth. In 2011, seven percent of people said they believe more than half of the federal government's budget goes to public broadcasting. Another four percent thought it was 31 to 50 percent of the budget. Is is easy to get 10-15% of the population to believe in absolute rubbish despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The MMR vaccine has an effectiveness of only around 95%- meaning 5% of people do the right thing, get vaccinated, but could still get the disease. MMR is given at 12-15 months of age, so roughly 1.5% of the population who will get the vaccine hasn't gotten it yet. Some people (no idea what %) are very poor and never go to doctors, even if the vaccine is free. That 5-20% "margin" of herd immunity starts to look awfully shaky if you consider all the people who already can't or don't get a vaccine.
Finally, the anti-vaxxers tend to live in pockets of people who believe as they do. This means the disease can get a foothold in those neighborhoods, and survive. There is a very real risk that some diseases could thrive long enough to mutate enough so that the vaccine doesn't work anymore.
Even if this doesn't become a "big" problem, the consequences can be very damaging on an individual basis. My daughter is only 6 months old. She hasn't gotten many vaccinations yet because she is just too young. If some clown passes on the measles to her, her death is a very real possibility. Can you justify a death like that as not being "a serious threat"? The stakes too high to ignore these idiots.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
"We should be many Degrees warmer"
lie.
AGW has been proclaiming this for years, but the variation has been minimal contrasted against historical records. It's the theories that proclaim that "doom has come."
"the Ice Sheets should be gone already"
lie.
Northwest passage BS ring any bells?
" and flooding of Florida should nearly be complete. "
lie.
I can remember this one from the 80's, that Florida would be under water by 2015. Don't see it happening.
" Don't forget about the Polar Bears Drowning ...."
it's happening, although some of mating with brown bears and creating a new species.
We've got so many polar bears in Canada and they're so aggressive and territorial that several times the government has considered culls to keep them and other animals from becoming depopulated. Bastards will wipe out large groups of deer and moose, eat half, leave the rest to rot. Then do it again.
Om, nomnomnom...
""I look and see Piltdown Man all over again. "
This you are clueless. Their was NEVER scientific consensus on piltdown man, and when Scientist looked at it they declared it a fraud."
That is mighty revisionist history. There were University classes featuring Piltdown Man, and quite a number of "Scientists" got their PhD with their final Thesis supporting Piltdown man. It WAS scientific consensus for about 30 years (1911-1953) , with growing doubts for the last ten. There is also Peking Man, discovered about the same time (also fraud) which was also used as "proof", much like the UEA manipulation of Global Warming data, don't you think?
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
True, it does not disprove Sasquatch - but it also does nothing to support it.
And on that "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" thing, that is in fact an informal fallacy. Absence of evidence (if you have actively been seeking to collect evidence with tools capable of doing so) absolutely is evidence, but not "proof", of absence in every branch of science.
If you go to a doctor and get a biopsy looking for cancer, and no cells are found, that is absolutely a valid indicator that cancer of they type being screened for, is not present (though the tests can fail sometimes to detect it when it is).
Environmental DNA/RNA sampling is a very powerful technique to detect the presence of species that are difficult to observe. Almost any physical remain left by an animal, even extremely small samples (feces, blood, saliva, hair, skin, tooth, nail, etc.) will allow detection of its DNA to be matched against libraries to determine its phylogenetic grouping, and species identity if known.
If over a reasonable amount of time no one can produce a sample bearing the DNA of a novel creature, then it cannot reasonably be supposed to exist.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age