Case file · Cryptid
Yeti relics DNA study (Lindqvist, 2017)
A 2017 study led by Charlotte Lindqvist at the University at Buffalo analysed nine 'yeti' relics, including bone, tooth, skin, hair and faecal samples from museums and monasteries: eight were bears and one was a dog.
2017 CE · 43.00, -78.79 · status: explained
The account
The samples, gathered for a television documentary, included a mummified 'yeti' paw and a femur from a cave in Tibet. The bears were Himalayan brown bears, Tibetan brown bears and Asian black bears. The work also clarified the evolutionary history of the region's rare bears.
The sceptical view
The study supports the long-held view that yeti relics and many sightings come from the region's bears.
Connections in the atlas
- Reinhold Messner's yeti
- Daniel Taylor's 'tree bear' tracks in the Barun Valley
- The Oxford 'anomalous primate' DNA study
- Yeti