Russia Hair Samples Used in Sykes’ Study

Posted by: Craig Woolheater on November 1st, 2013

Russia Hair Samples

In May 2012, Professor Bryan Sykes invited institutions and individuals from all over the world to submit organic material thought to belong to ‘Bigfoot’ and other unknown hominids to the Oxford Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project. After carefully reviewing each donation, Professor Sykes selected the 38 best samples and sent them for DNA analysis.

Professor Bryan Sykes’s DNA tests on Russian samples as follows:

25027 – SAMPLE PROVIDED BY KUNGCHEV FAMILY (via IGOR BURSTEV)

1. DATE OF SAMPLE COLLECTION: November 2011

2. LOCATION OF SAMPLE COLLECTION: Tashtagol, Kemorovo, Siberia, Russia

3. COLOUR OF HAIR SAMPLE: Dark Brown

4. LENGTH OF HAIR SAMPLE: c. 40mm

5. OTHER PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Medium thickness

6. DETAILS SURROUNDING SAMPLE COLLECTION: Sample found by Yuri Kungushev in a tree, close to a trail of unusual footprints.

7. RESULT: Ursus arctos, Brown Bear.

25039 – SAMPLE ‘A’ PROVIDED BY MICHAEL TRACHTENGERTS

1. DATE OF SAMPLE COLLECTION: 1970 (precise date unknown)

2. LOCATION OF SAMPLE COLLECTION: Malka Valley, Kabardino-Balkarien, North Caucasus, Russia

3. COLOUR OF HAIR SAMPLE: Dark

4. LENGTH OF HAIR SAMPLE: c. 90mm

5. OTHER PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Thick

6. DETAILS SURROUNDING SAMPLE COLLECTION: Sample collected in the Malka valley, an area renowned for Almasty encounters. The hair was taken from a bush, close to a sports field where strange footprints were discovered.

7. RESULT: Equus caballus, Horse

25040 – SAMPLE ‘B’ PROVIDED BY MICHAEL TRACHTENGERTS

1. DATE OF SAMPLE COLLECTION: August 1976

2. LOCATION OF SAMPLE COLLECTION: Narzan Valley, Kabardino-Balkarien, North Caucasus, Russia

3. COLOUR OF HAIR SAMPLE: Red/Brown

4. LENGTH OF HAIR SAMPLE: c. 30mm

5. OTHER PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Medium thickness

6. DETAILS SURROUNDING SAMPLE COLLECTION: Unknown

7. RESULT: Bos taurus, Cow

25041 – SAMPLE ‘C’ PROVIDED BY MICHAEL TRACHTENGERTS

1. DATE OF SAMPLE COLLECTION: 1994 (precise date unknown)

2. LOCATION OF SAMPLE COLLECTION: Baksan Valley, Kabardino-Balkarien, North Caucasus, Russia

3. COLOUR OF HAIR SAMPLE: Dark

4. LENGTH OF HAIR SAMPLE: c. 30-50mm

5. OTHER PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Thick

6. DETAILS SURROUNDING SAMPLE COLLECTION: Sample found in an area locals insist is frequently visited by a family of Almasty.

7. RESULT: Equus caballus, Horse

25042 – SAMPLE ‘D’ PROVIDED BY MICHAEL TRACHENGERTS

1. DATE OF SAMPLE COLLECTION: 1992 (precise date unknown)

2. LOCATION OF SAMPLE COLLECTION: Kargopol, Kargopolsky, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia

3. COLOUR OF HAIR SAMPLE: Light Grey

4. LENGTH OF HAIR SAMPLE: c. 60mm

5. OTHER PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Very fine thickness, shiny in appearance

6. DETAILS SURROUNDING SAMPLE COLLECTION: Following an incident where 40 Russian soldiers observed a strange creature, this sample was retrieved in severe frost from the roof of a building.

7. RESULT: No DNA result. Infrared fluorescence tests identified sample as glass fibres.

About Craig Woolheater
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005. I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films: OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.


One Response to “Russia Hair Samples Used in Sykes’ Study”

  1. Assistent responds:

    Credit to Craig Woolheater for this post.

    This DNA results are a strong impact for all believers. And a plus for all opponents and skeptics. So, we should come to the conclusion that the Moscow hominologists have no real sample of Russian Bigfoot hair in their collection over all the years? Not only one time hair samples were analyzed in Moscow with the result: No human, no any know mammal. The hair samples from Russia, examined by Dr. Sykes, contained hair from such samples too?

    Dmitri Bayanov described in his book “In the footsteps of Russian Snomwan, 1996, his old Moscow colleague Vadim Makarov as a “specialist in hair identification”.

    So it would be interesting to know what Vadim Makarov thinks about the samples, which were given by Michael Trachtengerts to Dr. Sykes. And could Vadim Makarov be a specialist, if he never had real Russian Bigfoot hairs in his hands? Where are the real hair samples that made him a specialist? They are yet in Moscow? Here are some press comments:

    DNA ‘tests’ of hair supposedly from a Yeti in a Siberian cave show it comes from an unknown mammal closely related to man, it was claimed last night.
    The alleged findings were revealed on the official website of a regional government in Russia.
    It claimed that two tests were carried out in Russia and one in the US. These had agreed the hair came from a human-like creature which is not a Homo sapien yet is more closely related to man than a monkey, it was reported.

    ‘We had ten samples of hair to study, and have concluded that they belong to mammal, but not a human, and not the animals known to the area where they were found, like a bear, or wolf, or goat, or any other animal,’ Professor Valentin Sapunov was quoted as saying.

    The hairs were found in the Kemerovo region in Siberia in the same cave that was a destination of a 2011 scientific conference. American Bigfoot researchers were invited to discuss the creature. Dr. Jeff Meldrum, a credentialed expert who attended, was less than impressed. An exclusive report from Doubtful News is here.
    Dr. Jeff Meldrum, professor of anatomy and anthropologist at Idaho State University, has spoken out about his recent excursion to Siberia to examine the existence of the Russian Yeti. Dr. Meldrum was a featured speaker at the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Conference in Youngwood, PA on Sunday, October 23. His conclusion: the yeti evidence was poor and he and other researchers were brought to Russia to add credibility to the local claim that yetis live in the area.

    The claim of indisputable proof of the Yeti in this part of Siberia is at least a year old. But, the scientific community isn’t convinced.
    The release of the results coincides with the coming ski season in Kemerovo. There is RAMPANT speculation that the Yeti promotions are publicity stunts to draw tourism. November 11 is Yeti Day! But, there’s no doubt some people do believe the creatures actually live there. The biggest proponent of the Yeti reality is Igor Burtsev (various spellings: Bourtsev, Burtsaev), who led the expedition last year. Curiously, he is questioning the validity of the hair ID claims!

    The report says that three “world level universities” did the analysis of the hair(s). The hair was divided into three lots and sent to a laboratories in Moscow, St Petersburg and Idaho (Meldrum’s?). But details end there. Did they all agree? How, exactly, was it tested? What did it show? Why wasn’t this written up as a scientific paper? No word from Meldrum yet (I’ll keep looking; there is a good chance he will have something to say considering he found the cave discovery to be a complete setup and bemoaned the lack of scientific protocol).
    To add to the strangeness and dubiousness of these Yeti reports, the article notes that the announcement on the Russian website turns a bit paranormal. The text as reported suggests the creatures have a super sense and know when things are about to happen. This is similar to what Dr. Burtsev has said – they do have paranormal ability as well as weapons. He believes they are a relic Neanderthal population.

    This report will be touted by the Bigfoot believer sites and ignored (probably) by the scientific community. Any such discovery means nothing until it is written up, examined and critiqued by others. They are making a HUGE claim and this is an unscientific and highly questionable way to go about declaring it.
    The Sun posted a report interviewing both Professor Valentin Sapunov, who claimed definitive DNA evidence of a Yeti this week and Oleg Pugachev, Director of the Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Science.
    Sapunov seems to stand by the DNA results he claimed for the Yeti fur, while Pugachev, director of one of the labs that did the testing says they were not even able to extract any genetic material.
    The above is from Bigfoot Lunch Club blog because I won’t link to The Sun piece. You can see the reprint there. But Sapunov goes on to explain “no confirmed sightings of yetis because the animals have an acute sense of danger.” He notes that at least 200 of them exist. The lab director says he is outright lying about the DNA. Hmm.

    When anyone, scientist or not, claims supernatural senses to explain why he has no evidence, it’s time to just turn around and walk away from him. His credibility is zero. THIS kind of stuff is why the Bigfoot field is a joke. You can’t run a research area on speculative claims and nonsense.

Sorry. Comments have been closed.

|Top | Content|


Connect with Cryptomundo

Cryptomundo FaceBook Cryptomundo Twitter Cryptomundo Instagram Cryptomundo Pinterest

Advertisers



Creatureplica Fouke Monster Sybilla Irwin



Advertisement

|Top | FarBar|



Attention: This is the end of the usable page!
The images below are preloaded standbys only.
This is helpful to those with slower Internet connections.