tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/yeti-1604/articlesYeti – The Conversation2013-10-21T03:36:56Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193682013-10-21T03:36:56Z2013-10-21T03:36:56ZYetis, Yowies and dinosaur trees: amazing finds in the hunt for living legends<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33326/original/bndfk4vw-1382324143.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Woodenbong at sunrise: could a Yowie really be lurking in the surrounding woods?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/gaw101 (Greg Wilson)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You might think the idea of a Yeti is far-fetched, but don’t tell that to <a href="http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/bigfoot-files-professor-brian-sykes-mark-evans-embark-global-quest-uncover-mystery-bigfoot/">Oxford University Professor Bryan Sykes</a> - or to the locals in Australian towns like Kilcoy and Woodenbong.</p>
<p>Sykes created a global frenzy when he recently announced that the Yeti <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24433-beware-of-the-yeti-and-spurious-science-too.html">might well exist</a>. His analyses were based on two hair samples collected 800 miles apart in the Himalayas.</p>
<p>When he analysed the DNA in those hairs, he found they perfectly matched the DNA of an ancient polar bear. According to Sykes, this could mean the polar bear is alive and kicking in the high Himalayas today. Those who claim to have seen the Yeti describe it as shaggy, bipedal and very shy, and Sykes reckons his ancient bear fits the ticket.</p>
<p>People who study legendary creatures such as the Yeti or its Australian equivalent, the Yowie, are called <a href="http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/17438/">cryptobiologists</a>. They run the gamut from mainstream scientists to fringe types claiming to have been attacked by giant man-eating plants or kidnapped by aliens.</p>
<p>But while the creatures they’re searching for can seem far-fetched, we shouldn’t dismiss cryptobiologists as cranks - because in their search for living legends, they have uncovered some amazing lost creatures.</p>
<h2>Yowie spotting in Australia</h2>
<p>Accounts of Yowies by Europeans hark back to 1876, when a report of an “indigenous ape” appeared in the <em>Australian Town and Country Journal</em>. Yowies were soon being seen in abundance. One enterprising chap even offered to capture a Yowie for the Australian Museum for 40 pounds sterling.</p>
<p>Since then, eastern Australia has been peppered by Yowie sightings. Yowies, it’s been claimed, have attacked dogs, frightened gold miners and wandered into cities. </p>
<p>In 2010, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yowie#Australian_Capital_Territory">a man in Canberra reportedly spotted</a> a “juvenile Yowie” in his garage. He said it was hairy with long arms and was definitely trying to communicate with him. Presumably he didn’t confuse it with his teenage son.</p>
<p>Some in the small farming town of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilcoy,_Queensland">Kilcoy</a>, northwest of Brisbane, claim that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yowie_%28cryptid%29">Yowie</a> lives to this day in the mountains surrounding them. They even have a wooden statue of a Yowie and their very own Yowie Park.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33312/original/v7xtm2c9-1382318214.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Yowie statue in Yowie Park, Kilcoy, Queensland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia Commons/Somersetpedia.paul</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not to be outdone, people living in and around the northern NSW town of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNXhjzPpIbk">Woodenbong have been Yowie spotting</a> since the 1890s. <a href="http://woodenbong.org/">Two alleged sightings</a> in the 1970s prompted scientists to investigate the reports, but the women who made the claims were mocked and since then there have only been whispers of further sightings.</p>
<h2>Monsters in our midst</h2>
<p>I encountered the Yowie legend in the 1980s while doing fieldwork for my PhD in the rainforests of the Atherton Tableland, in far north Queensland. The newsagent in a local village told me, in great seriousness, about a giant ape-like creature that decades earlier had chased a logger in the rainforest of the nearby Maalan area. The logger was so frightened, she said, that he never set foot in the rainforest again — and <a href="http://www.northqueenslandregister.com.au/news/agriculture/agribusiness/general-news/some-tall-tales-from-timbercutter/2337946.aspx">the local legend of the “Maalan Monster”</a> was born.</p>
<p>I spent quite a lot of time in the Maalan rainforest, often spotlighting alone at night. I never saw any monsters but I did startle a number of Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroos, which can make a tremendous racket when they plummet down from trees and then loudly bound away.</p>
<p>A bit perversely, I once hatched a plot with a colleague — an Aussie biologist who was leading some American university students on a spotlighting hike in the Maalan area — to reveal the Maalan Monster to the world. Our scheme was that I’d hire a gorilla costume and then roar across the track just in front of the students, before disappearing forever.</p>
<p>Alas, I couldn’t find a gorilla outfit anywhere, otherwise I reckon they’d be selling Maalan Monster burgers in the local takeaway to this day.</p>
<h2>Cryptobiology and its discoveries</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33299/original/wpszcr2q-1382313750.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Mindoro fruit bat, which has metre-long wings and was recently discovered in the Philippines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Used with permission from H.J.D. Garcia/Haribon Foundation</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While it’s tempting to giggle occasionally, cryptobiologists have made many valuable discoveries. These include recent finds such as the Mindoro fruit bat (pictured right) and the Laotian rock rat — representing a completely new family of mammal — as well as so-called “Lazarus species” that were long presumed extinct. Examples of the latter include the coelacanth, okapi, Javan elephant and giant terror skink, among many others.</p>
<p>Here in Australia, the mountain pygmy possum and <a href="http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/plant_info/wollemi_pine">Wollemi Pine</a> are notable Lazarus species. Nicknamed a “dinosaur tree”, the pine is the only known survivor of a plant family that was thought to have disappeared 200 million years ago. It was discovered in a deep, narrow canyon in 1994, just 150km from Sydney.</p>
<p>Some respected scientists have become very caught up in the search for legendary or putatively extinct species, which are known as “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptid">cryptids</a>”. </p>
<p>Francis Crome, a former CSIRO biologist, spent considerable time trying to photograph a thylacine in north Queensland, following a reported sighting from an amateur spotlighting group.</p>
<p>Likewise, Aaron Bauer, an American herpetologist, once desperately searched the length and breadth of New Zealand after a local resident sent him a photo of a six-foot-long gecko, which according to Maori legend had once lived on the island. The photo, it turned out, was a practical joke by one of Bauer’s New Zealand colleagues, a tale I recount in my book, <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Stinging_Trees_and_Wait_a_Whiles.html?id=HAyV9y-EPcQC">Stinging Trees and Wait-a-Whiles</a>.</p>
<h2>Mysterious creatures</h2>
<p>Perhaps the search for cryptids tells us something about ourselves. All of us — even including sober-minded scientists — enjoy a mystery and the search for the unknown. </p>
<p>And it’s not as though nature has come even close to revealing all its secrets. It’s currently thought, for instance, that less than half of the plant species in the Amazon have been scientifically discovered, and possibly just a tenth of the planet’s insect species.</p>
<p>All this means we should probably keep an open mind about the world’s biological mysteries.</p>
<p>And even if I actually think the Yowie legend is pretty dubious – just don’t tell the folks in Kilcoy or Woodenbong that I said so.</p>
<p><br>
<strong>Further reading:</strong> <br>
<strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-evidence-for-himalayan-yetis-doesnt-bear-scrutiny-19350">DNA ‘evidence’ for Himalayan yetis doesn’t bear scrutiny</a></strong> <br>
<strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/cryptozoology-no-need-for-an-apology-12332">Cryptozoology? No need for an apology</a></strong> <br>
<strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/media-puts-its-bigfoot-in-it-yeti-again-its-abominable-3738">Media puts its Bigfoot in it Yeti again: it’s abominable</a></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19368/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Laurance receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other scientific and philanthropic organisations. In addition to his appointment as Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate at James Cook University, he holds the Prince Bernhard Chair in International Nature Conservation at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. This Chair is co-sponsored by Utrecht University and WWF-Netherlands.</span></em></p>You might think the idea of a Yeti is far-fetched, but don’t tell that to Oxford University Professor Bryan Sykes - or to the locals in Australian towns like Kilcoy and Woodenbong. Sykes created a global…Bill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193502013-10-18T11:57:22Z2013-10-18T11:57:22ZDNA ‘evidence’ for Himalayan yetis doesn’t bear scrutiny<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33254/original/36n63n8q-1382091168.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Enough evidence?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">samrich2003</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent DNA testing of two hairs, purportedly from a yeti, has raised a lot of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10387186/The-yeti-comes-in-from-the-cold-with-link-to-ancient-polar-bear.html">public interest</a>. Does the evidence really show that yetis exist? </p>
<p>Well, not just yet. The test looked at mitochondrial DNA sequences, a commonly used forensic technique that looks at genetic material inherited from the mother only. This is an easier test to conduct because mitochondrial DNA is present in many copies in every cell, so there is more to work with in small or degraded samples. </p>
<p>Critically, the test was conducted in a lab that works primarily on humans, and they produced sequences that, when matched to a database, turned out to be bear-like, specifically polar bear-like. I haven’t seen the data, but I would find this result convincing. If Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University, had found the DNA to be human there would be question marks due to possible contamination, because a tiny fleck of dandruff can easily contribute spurious DNA.</p>
<p>Accepting that the hair samples came from polar bears, the next question to ask is how they came to be in the Himalayas and associated with the yeti story. Many alternative explanations need to be eliminated before we can take this story seriously. It is possible, for instance, that the hairs got there by accident. </p>
<p>Journalists, explorers and scientists interested in the world’s colder regions may well visit both the Arctic, where polar bears live, and the Himalayas. Could hairs travel between these places either on or even made into clothing or mementos? Possibly. Certainly, if someone found a putative yeti footprint and, when crouching over it, a polar bear hair fell onto the snow, I can imagine a level of excitement where the person forgets what they are wearing. </p>
<p>If the hairs did not get to the Himalayas by accident, then we must consider the possibility that they were placed there deliberately. History is littered with hoaxes, from <a href="http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/science-of-natural-history/the-scientific-process/piltdown-man-hoax/">Piltdown man</a> to the famous photos of the Loch Ness monster. Journalists would be motivated to produce a good story. Locals might like to increase tourism. Rogue scientists might like to take credit for solving a riddle or perhaps even play a joke on colleagues. For a scientific prankster, what better artifact to place than a polar bear hair?</p>
<p>I know nothing about the circumstances in which these hairs were collected, but to take the bear story at face value I would need to see a lot of solid evidence that a spoof was out of the question. Such evidence is not easy to come by.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33262/original/3s3qb7cv-1382097340.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yetis might remain as toys.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">dlanham</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What if the hairs were not placed there deliberately? Then the story gets more interesting, but it would still be somewhat difficult to swallow. A polar bear could do a good imitation of the storybook yeti. Rearing onto its hind legs it would appear huge and frightening. And bears living in perennially snowy conditions, like most other species, would tend to evolve white fur: prey species don’t want to be discovered while predators need to be able to sneak up on their prey unseen. However, bears are large, warm-blooded species that need a lot of nutrition. </p>
<p>Polar bears survive by eating seals, which are seasonally abundant and provide large chunks of high calorie blubber. A similar species of bear living in the Himalayas would probably find life more difficult. These regions are depicted as barren landscapes not bursting with energy-rich fruits and berries or large, small mammals. From my limited knowledge I struggle to see how such a large species like a polar bear could obtain sufficient nutrition. This is even more of a problem if we are to believe there is a viable population numbering at least tens and probably a few hundred. Why are there not more sightings?</p>
<p>To dismiss all stories of this kind would be wrong. New species of mammal are occasionally discovered, even now, and there is the famous case of <em>Homo floriensis</em>, the so-called “hobbit”, a recently extinct form of human found in Indonesia. However, even these discoveries are open to revision. <a href="https://theconversation.com/of-heads-and-headlines-can-a-skull-doom-14-human-species-19227">New research</a> has questioned whether <em>Homo floriensis</em> could be considered different from <em>Homo sapiens</em>. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, everyone likes a good story, so in cases like the yeti we need to be particularly careful that all the pieces add up. I can be convinced the reported hairs came from bears. I would take a lot more convincing that they came from yeti footprints and that there is a viable but previously unknown population of bears in the Himalayas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19350/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Amos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The recent DNA testing of two hairs, purportedly from a yeti, has raised a lot of public interest. Does the evidence really show that yetis exist? Well, not just yet. The test looked at mitochondrial DNA…William Amos, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/117962013-01-24T19:57:22Z2013-01-24T19:57:22ZWomen sought for Neandertal surrogacy? Not Yeti, thankfully<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19548/original/4rkqjn38-1358994313.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It may be some time before we hear the pitter-patter of Neandertal feet.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">flequi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a sort-of Ice Age version of Jurassic Park, Harvard University’s Professor George Church has <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/george-church-explains-how-dna-will-be-construction-material-of-the-future-a-877634.html">suggested</a> – to <a href="http://io9.com/5978295/no-george-church-is-not-looking-for-an-extremely-adventurous-female-human-to-give-birth-to-a-neandertal">much media coverage</a> – that, one day soon, scientists somewhere will place a very unusual personal ad in a newspaper: “Wanted, women to carry and give birth to a Neandertal.”</p>
<p>Without doubt the scientists will be swamped with offers from willing participants – provided there’s a (paid) extended TV interview, magazine exclusives, a book deal and a Hollywood movie to go along with it all.</p>
<p>Who knows, Yeti hunters might even make their wombs available in the hope it will finally land their much-sought-after quarry.</p>
<p>After all, the Abominable Snowman belongs, according to <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4623719/Hundreds-of-yetis-live-in-Siberia-claims-boffin.html">newspaper quotes</a> from Russian Yeti-hunter Valentin Sapunov, to an isolated and late-surviving Neandertal population living in Siberia.</p>
<p>Sapunov is even reported in the media as claiming there are 200 such creatures living in various parts of the region.</p>
<p>Moreover, some of his fellow Yeti-believers in Russia are planning to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2265063/New-Yeti-resort-opened-Siberia-encourage-tourists-catch-Abominable-Snowman.html">open their own Yeti resort</a> in the town of Sheregesh in southern Siberia: I guess they’ll be needing some Yetis to stock it with, unless they actually catch some soon.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19584/original/v8pjxw4k-1358995034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19584/original/v8pjxw4k-1358995034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19584/original/v8pjxw4k-1358995034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19584/original/v8pjxw4k-1358995034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19584/original/v8pjxw4k-1358995034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19584/original/v8pjxw4k-1358995034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19584/original/v8pjxw4k-1358995034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19584/original/v8pjxw4k-1358995034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">iriskh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So far, these Neandertals have been far too clever to be seen up close, let alone captured, despite all of our 21st century devices.</p>
<p>Come to think of it, “Yeti Park” might be a great way of paying for the Neandertal cloning, as well as providing a nice place to keep them for us to gawk at, just like in the movie Jurassic Park.</p>
<p>Heck, we could even clone a few mammoths and watch the Neandertals slaughter them for entertainment, all the while munching on our Mammoth Burgers, prepared by our cloned cousins.</p>
<h2>‘Misinterpreted and poorly translated’</h2>
<p>Seriously though, the recent media coverage of Church’s Q&A, published in Der Spiegel’s online offshoot <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/george-church-explains-how-dna-will-be-construction-material-of-the-future-a-877634.html">Spiegel Online</a>, has aroused a lot of media interest and has seen the good professor defending his comments published in German, stating they were <a href="http://io9.com/5978295/no-george-church-is-not-looking-for-an-extremely-adventurous-female-human-to-give-birth-to-a-neandertal">misinterpreted and poorly translated</a>.</p>
<p>According to Spiegel Online:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Like no-one else, molecular biologist George Church represents a guild that is prepared to try out anything that can be done, unconditionally.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The magazine further cites Church as saying, an “adventurous female human” needs to be found as a surrogate mother for the first Neandertal baby and, from many individuals, “a kind of Neandertal culture” could arise that could gain “political significance”.</p>
<p>I really hope Church is right about being mistranslated. As an anthropologist who studies the evidence we have for the real Neandertals and our other extinct Ice Age cousins, I find this stuff to be pretty freaky and just a little troubling.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19583/original/7kc8cydv-1358994797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19583/original/7kc8cydv-1358994797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19583/original/7kc8cydv-1358994797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19583/original/7kc8cydv-1358994797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19583/original/7kc8cydv-1358994797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19583/original/7kc8cydv-1358994797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19583/original/7kc8cydv-1358994797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19583/original/7kc8cydv-1358994797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Katy Kristin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even if we could do it – and presently we don’t have the technology – why would we want to clone a Neandertal? What would we do with it? What would we do <em>to</em> it?</p>
<p>It’s not like we’re trying to bring some endangered species back from the brink, or even back from human-induced extinction, a situation in which there might be a sound ethical basis for cloning.</p>
<p>While “human rights” have not yet been extended to our ape cousins, in 2011 the US government <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/us-chimpanzee-research-to-be-curtailed-1.9663">limited the amount of medical experimentation that can be done on chimpanzees</a>.</p>
<p>But, according to a <a href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/12/nih-sends-chimps-to-sanctuary-with-help-from-animal-activists.html">Nature News Blog</a>, the US government continues to fund invasive research on almost 200 chimpanzees at two medical research institutes.</p>
<p>Is this where we might be headed with cloned Neandertals?</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org/">Nonhuman Rights Project</a>, with primatologist <a href="http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org/about-us-2/">Jane Goodall</a> among its directors, is campaigning to extend legal rights to species other than our own. Perhaps they’ll need to soon place Neandertals on their list.</p>
<h2>What is ‘human’?</h2>
<p>Most anthropologists regard Neandertals to be a different species to us, albeit it a very closely related one.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19582/original/p3vth5cq-1358994676.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19582/original/p3vth5cq-1358994676.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19582/original/p3vth5cq-1358994676.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19582/original/p3vth5cq-1358994676.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19582/original/p3vth5cq-1358994676.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19582/original/p3vth5cq-1358994676.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19582/original/p3vth5cq-1358994676.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/19582/original/p3vth5cq-1358994676.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">kellyhogaboom</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, strictly speaking, despite their many similarities to us, Neandertals are not humans, and would not automatically qualify for human rights.</p>
<p>Cloning them would raise a major ethical conundrum for any scientist considering going down that path. I’m not aware of anyone trying, and I don’t get the impression from Church’s media comments that he plans to himself.</p>
<p>Also, while many of the world’s governments have banned human cloning, would Neandertals fall under such a ban?</p>
<p>The whole idea should bring firmly into our minds the many atrocities perpetrated against cultural minorities around the world over the last few hundred years, some of them in the name of science, others simply because the extinction of one group or other was apparently inevitable.</p>
<p>Most of them - millions of them - were considered less than human by the people carrying out the experiments or atrocities and not worthy of rights or protection.</p>
<p>Finally, the other obvious lesson for scientists from this is to avoid being seduced by the media into thinking your own stupidity is newsworthy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/11796/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darren Curnoe receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>In a sort-of Ice Age version of Jurassic Park, Harvard University’s Professor George Church has suggested – to much media coverage – that, one day soon, scientists somewhere will place a very unusual personal…Darren Curnoe, Human evolution specialist, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/37382011-10-07T00:21:18Z2011-10-07T00:21:18ZMedia puts its Bigfoot in it Yeti again: it’s abominable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/4190/original/4365312135_15a6e8fcef_o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C57%2C811%2C681&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When you hear the words "international team of scientists" run for the hills.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Itsy Bitsy Spider</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What ever happened to quality science reporting in the mainstream media? Why do so many journalists seem to simply accept press releases as fact? Are qualifications no longer relevant when it comes to journalistic scrutiny of science? Perhaps there’s no longer any scrutiny? Let’s be clear: there is NO Yeti! </p>
<p>The people claiming there <em>is</em> such a creature have no idea about science or the evidence that would be needed to convince scientists that a Yeti, or Bigfoot, or Yowie, or what ever you call it, exists!</p>
<p>This week I learned from Sydney’s <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/on-a-hunt-for-the-yeti-international-team-of-scientists-looking-for-yeti-sightings/story-e6freuy9-1226158384023">Daily Telegraph</a>, the ABC, the UK’s <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2044813/Yeti-hunt-Russian-American-scientists-pool-Cold-War-evidence.html">Mail and Telegraph newspapers</a> and the <a href="http://http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/siberian-snowman_n_994268.html#s271066">Huffington Post</a> (no less) that a Russian scientist is to be supported in his Bigfoot-hunting efforts by an international team specialising in human evolution. </p>
<p>I checked my calendar to see if it was April 1, and not October 6, as I had (mistakenly) thought. No, October. This story must be real. Not again, I thought.</p>
<p>The 82-year-old Russian heading the project, <a href="http://hominology.narod.ru/eng.htm">Igor Burstev</a> – apparently “Dr” Burstev – has convinced himself, local authorities, and apparently plenty of journalists, that the Yeti is real. Burstev even claims the Yeti is a relic population of <a href="http://www.ecotao.com/holism/hu_neand.htm">Neandertals</a>. </p>
<p>And a number of sometimes quite respectable news outlets have been sucked in with this nonsense.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/4188/original/1456974409_a46f3f5848_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/4188/original/1456974409_a46f3f5848_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4188/original/1456974409_a46f3f5848_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4188/original/1456974409_a46f3f5848_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4188/original/1456974409_a46f3f5848_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4188/original/1456974409_a46f3f5848_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4188/original/1456974409_a46f3f5848_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tesium</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Who are these “international scientists” who are going to find the Yeti? We have been given no names, nor credentials, nor institutions they belong to. I suspect, like so many of the so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/clearing-up-the-climate-debate">climate-change deniers</a>, they are frauds.</p>
<h2>Why the long feet?</h2>
<p>Is there a chance the Yeti might exist? Yes, there’s a chance, just as with so many phenomena we scientists think about. It’s possible. From time to time, a new species of mammal, even primate, is described in some remote area largely unexplored by scientists.</p>
<p>But based on the evidence presented in favour of its existence, the Yeti looks like a very poor hoax to me. Why are there no proper photographs of this creature? Oh, of course – the people who have seen it were too scared to look away and pick up their cameras in case the Yeti disappeared from view. </p>
<p>All of the claimed photographs or video footage I have seen are completely bogus. I could do a better job myself with a gorilla costume from a party shop, a good camera, and photo-editing software.</p>
<figure><div style="text-align:center;">
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FWGYTHK3E30?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The infamous Patterson-Gimlin “Bigfoot” footage from 1967.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
</div></figure>
<p>Why do they always have ridiculously large footprints that look like some off-course camel train passed through snow-swept Siberia? </p>
<p>A few facts: the Neandertals, our closet evolutionary relative, with whom we shared <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/12/101222-new-human-species-dna-nature-science-evolution-fossil-finger/">an ancestor</a> 400-500,000 years ago, went extinct 25-30,000 years ago. </p>
<p>They had a body mass of around 75 kilograms (on average) and stood about 162 centimetres tall (on average). We can estimate these things with good accuracy from their bones.</p>
<p>I’m about 75 kilograms, but a lot taller than 162 centimetres. Yet my foot is size eight, about average for an Australian male.</p>
<p>Why the big foot? Lack of imagination by the hoaxers, I suppose. Or lack of knowledge of human anatomy and the human fossil record, more likely. </p>
<p>Oh, and guys, they had five toes like we do, not four, as seems mostly to be the case in your fake photos. Try referring to a good anatomy textbook for starters.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/4189/original/5258576295_9b5217b676_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/4189/original/5258576295_9b5217b676_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4189/original/5258576295_9b5217b676_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4189/original/5258576295_9b5217b676_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4189/original/5258576295_9b5217b676_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4189/original/5258576295_9b5217b676_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4189/original/5258576295_9b5217b676_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Frocoli</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Interbreeding </h2>
<p>When our ancestors left Africa, 60-70,000 years ago, they happily interbred with the Neandertals. In fact, all of us alive today whose ancestry is Asian, Aboriginal Australian, European, Pacific Islander or Native American, share DNA with them. Up to 6% of our DNA is in fact the result of our ancestors having <a href="http://theconversation.com/sex-with-our-evolutionary-cousins-whats-not-to-love-3465">shagged them</a>!</p>
<p>Far from being bushy-haired, large-toothed, stoop-shouldered, and rather large-footed like the Yeti, Neandertals looked an awful lot like us. Probably not very hairy; certainly with small canine teeth; and hell, they even had nice posture – not like some creature that has spent his working life hunched over a computer writing about hare-brained nonsense like the existence of mythical beings living today in Siberia …</p>
<p>So I ask, where’s the evidence for living Neandertals? If anyone has it, we’d really love to see it. Forget those broken bits of fossil bones and teeth we anthropologists have to work with to study our evolution. We could do real biology! With living creatures! </p>
<p>No-one should be excused from the normal rigorous processes such as <a href="http://theconversation.com/whos-your-expert-the-difference-between-peer-review-and-rhetoric-1550">peer review</a> scientists have to go through to get their research accepted. </p>
<p>Anyway, forget the hassles of convincing the real experts, go straight to the media – they’ll believe you!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/3738/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darren Curnoe receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>What ever happened to quality science reporting in the mainstream media? Why do so many journalists seem to simply accept press releases as fact? Are qualifications no longer relevant when it comes to…Darren Curnoe, Human evolution specialist, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.