Relict Skull Results: Khwit and Relative?

There’s news out of German cryptozoology site about new DNA results on the skull of Khwit (shown above) and another new find. In August, 2006, the Russian newspaper Komsomol’skaja Pravda (1) reported on the examination of a skull assumed to be from a “relic hominoid” from Abkazia. Most have talked about their relationship to the Almasty mystery. Igor Bourtsev, who found the skull, was invited to visit the USA for its analysis. (2)

Bourtsev wrote in the Mugamir Russian website that he was in New York from July 13-20, on an invitation from NG-TV. The DNA of the skull from Khwit and another female skull from a neighboring grave of Khwit were examined at New York University. NG-TV filmed his talk with a geneticist and an anthropologist.

According to Bourtsev, the preliminary result of the DNA analysis is that the skulls are most likely related. Khwit’s skull is an “Australoid type.” Some measurements of the skull are greater than the maximum values known from modern man. The female skull – according to Bourtsev – is an “African type,” with a strongly defined skeletal, lower facial and teeth prognathism. Despite the DNA relationship of the skulls, the anthropologist is skeptical that they are related because of the many morphological differences. Nothing is shared about Burtsev’s hypothesis of a genetic relationship to the Neanderthal. A written report of the examination is expected.

(1) Lagovskij, Vladimir. 2006. A Caucasian Prisoner. Komsomol’skaja Pravda, August 11 (in Russian).

(2) Moscow hominologist “Khwit” gives bone sample to the USA for investigation.

I have more to say about the Is It Real? morphological examination of the Khwit skull, and how they used the wrong skulls for comparison, some other time.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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