Yeti Hair Sample
Posted by: Loren Coleman on November 20th, 2009
Joshua Gates (R) displaying alleged footprint of Yeti.
For those who missed my earlier posting, during the hectic Grand Opening time frame, concerning the “Destination Truth” Yeti hair sample, below is the followup finding, and directly below is the prequel video moment from 2008.
The analysis reportedly came back as indicating “an unknown DNA sequence.”
What needs to occur, of course, is for the formal findings to be published in a scientific journal, and all the methodology and safeguards revealed and refereed, so this can be seen as worthy evidence.
As opposed to this moment merely being discussed only online, it should not be overturned because it was not treated scientifically.
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.
I don’t mean to be mean, but those Yeti toes look funny. There like just funny looking feet for that matter. XD
Finally in my eyes, this is evidence. I don’t care what others say. It did infact turned out unknown. That should tell us something. Plus the lady that took the sample, she seems like she would tell the truth so I believe it when she said it’s unknown. A primate for that matter.
Now I’m a strong believer in the Yeti and Sasquatch more than Bigfoot.
But hey mountain gorillas and okapis were once a myth, and they were found.
The okapi has strange appearnce just like some of these cryptids, which indicates it’s possible that these cryptids exist just like the strange looking animal called the okapi. 🙂
The most frustrating thing for yeti and sasquatch proponents has to be the treatment of forensic evidence when it’s found.
I for one have no problem deflecting skeptical takes on this. Practically all forensic evidence has been found by amateurs, and forwarded to professional cynicists, sorry, scientists. Testing takes time and money, lots of both, and when the folks doing the testing have a tendency to lump cryptids with ghosts and crop circles, any sample in the clutches of science has a tough row to hoe.
Unknown parasites have been found in alleged cryptid stool samples. Even though a fundamental principle of parasitology is that when you find an unknown parasite you have found an unknown host, where has that taken us? The usual nowhere.
I don’t believe that either proponents or skeptics understand the sheer power of simple incredulity in this question. It can make things invisible that are knocking on one’s door saying, hey, yo, anyone home? Discover me!
Here is the basic skeptical take on any aspect of the cryptid issue.
“This is absolutely absurd. Therefore….[insert totally speculative ramble, absolutely devoid of evidence, here].”
Thanks for posting this Lauren! I did some very minor research on the company DT used to do the testing, and they seem to be legit. However, if you have ANY contact with Josh and his team, I think they should be plied to publish this material in a larger way, as you suggest. This is potentially a huge find.
It also seems worth to note that not only did the DNA come back unknown (not inconclusive as many sceptics out there have been baying), it did hit on the ‘primate scale’, and the analyst indicated Large Primate. How you get that from an unknown analysis I don’t know.
If there is any way for you to follow up on this using back channel communications, this find should not be swept under the rug and left to message boards across the web.
Again, thanks for posting this!
For ParticleNoun, basically there were markers that conformed to the hair being from a Great Ape as in Gorilla, Chimpanzee or human but it didn’t match any known great ape and those sequences are well documented. Whether it’s a Yeti, the white color would bring that into question, or not it seems to be from a large unknown great ape and not an unknown monkey. The hair looks a bit like lemur hair but the DNA didn’t indicate that. Also she described it as heavier than horse tail hair which is surprising given horse tail hair is very stiff. It’d have to be from a very large animal and not tail hair since great apes lack tails. It’s by far the best evidence of a large unknown Great Ape I’ve ever seen. Given the color and location it might be from even a different species than others described in the past.
I wonder about the color, actually. We only see in under Night Vision filming, where dark hair can look very very light. I don’t think we ever got to see the actual color of the hair, so it may not be white at all.
AWESOME
It looks like something new is yet to be discovered. What, well we will have to wait and see.
Thanks for the info Loren. This is why I visit Cryptomundo on a daily basis.
The hair DNA testing results must be verified by other accredited laboratories before they start celebrating. If they need an internationally acclaimed laboratory to conduct the DNA testing for free, tell them to give me a call.
I’d also like to see a comparison between the DNA test results and those found by MonsterQuest in Canada. Even though I doubt that Yeti and Bigfoot are the same species (assuming one or both exist of course), I feel that due to the morphological similarities we might see some similarities in the DNA.
If it is correct that the DNA of an unknown large primate has been discovered this is great news! Forget some sceptics view that it has no value withot a specimen, the DNA is the specimen! A body may be wanted but is not needed now and there is hugh opportunity for ongoing research to identify the characteristics of this creature. Also making comparisons with other specimens and opening up research into a possible range of manimals!
It would be some kind of barrier breached if the hair colour, such as Neandertal red or any other characteristic was identified.
Ideally a special research project ought to deal with it and include work on Oliver’s DNA again and Kwit and his mother etc etc. it should have at least the kind of attention given to the Mars meteorite ALH84001. I think this primate DNA is more important as Mars is not likely to go away whereas Sasquatch is.
The foot print is bogus, look at it and try to make your self believe its real, I dare you. It doesn’t resemble any other so called Yeti foot prints does it? The hair sample hard to say what it is, doubt its Yeti or cryptid, just unknown; awfully broad statement. If it had come back saying unknown Primate dna sequence you would have something worthy of further pursuit and study. Just a question, who analyzed the “hair” sample?
I agree with Ferrets comment. I am an avid follower of bigfoot/yeti/skunk-ape news, and would like to see the results of a DNA comparison between the hairs found by the Destination Truth team and the DNA found in Canada by the Monsterquest team. I agree that the species may not be the same, but if there is any kind of match there, then it would surely squelch some of the skeptics/critics!
The footcast is strange and one has to wonder if it is genuine or part of a costume. For or against I think Josh Gates got a similar one from Indonesia. Assuming the footcast is genuine one has to wonder what its particular function would be. Does look like a paddle!
Korolloke, given that the DNA result was ‘unknown primate’ doesnt it seem that it must be at least a cryptid if not a yeti or similar?
Interesting what happened to the Canadian (Snelgrove lake) sample. What was described as ample blood, hair and tissue sample was submitted to Todd Disotell at NYU labs, no DNA was found even though DNA can now be found in up to 50,000 year samples. Disotell said the sample was either too degraded or non organic.
The sample was then tested by Kurt Nelson who found DNA after removing a zinc contaminant. He said the DNA was almost but not quite human. Disotell said the result was of human DNA. from contamination.