Recently, British and Swiss scientists confirmed the start of a project to study possible Yeti remains at the genomic level.
But molecular biologists will not go to the impenetrable jungles of Nepal themselves - in the implementation of such a bold project, they called for help from the owners of such unusual remains, who were asked to send all unidentified samples for further analysis. Scientists are interested in hair, keratinized skin particles and any other carriers of genetic information, even excrement.
Until recently, cryptozoologists could rattle with supposedly organic artifacts left over from the elusive hominoid for as long as they like, but now the methods of phylogenetic identification have reached their peak and allow us to confidently put the putative relict species on the rung of the evolutionary ladder due to it. The participants of the organized project Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid, which included specialists from the University of Oxford (Great Britain) and the Zoological Museum of Lausanne (Switzerland), will first form a collection of cases with a thorough description of the circumstances of the discovery of a particular mysterious object, and then select from their point of view the most reliable samples that could belong to Bigfoot. The scientists themselves admit that they do not believe too much that they will enrich science with a new species of great apes,however, they admit that they can get interesting results about the development of the Anthropoids and our Neanderthal ancestors. Having also replenished with copies from museums and private collections, the sample now comprises already 20 copies - potential "bombs" in the scientific community.
Another interesting direction of the project will be the taking of DNA samples from the population in places from which most often there are reports of meetings with the Yeti in order to assess the severity of the "Snowman" or Neanderthal DNA. As one of the project participants, Brian Sykes of the University of Oxford, emphasized: “Over the past twenty years, it has emerged that there has been significant inbreeding (closely related crossbreeding) between Homo Sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. From 2 to 4% of the DNA of every Caucasian has Neanderthal roots. " If all goes well, it will be a very interesting study and the first of its kind. To encourage cryptozoologists to part with their coveted property, Sachs promises to make every effort to publish the findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Bringing the fruits of many years of attempts into the orbit of international recognition is quite a good prospect in order to "fork out" a couple of scalps. Sachs adds: "It is possible that scientific research on these specimens will also reveal how Neanderthals and other early hominids interacted and spread throughout the world."
It is not yet known whether the domestic representatives of the cryptozoological school will respond to the proposal of foreign geneticists, but it can be assumed that their storehouses contain no less, and most likely even more, samples of an unexplained nature. There is not much time left for thinking - the formation of the sample will last until September, after which the DNA sequencing process will begin directly. If someone chooses this free analysis, then taking into account the work of our mail, he really should hurry up.