In 2014, Oxford genetics professor Bryan Sykes found that the strange hair samples he collected and analyzed did not point to the existence of "the abominable snowman" or Yeti in the Himalayas.Now, according to a team of new scientists, Sykes' claim that the hair samples belonged to an extinct species of Polar bear is also not true.
According to NBC News, Eliecer Gutierrez, a scholar of the Smithsonian Institution and Ronald Pine, from the University of Kansas, who analyzed the hair samples, have negated Sykes' assumption. They said that the significant genetic overlap in the RNA results in the hair samples means it belongs to the Himalayan brown bear.
Sykes had analyzed two uncommon types of hair samples collected from India and Bhutan, Clapway reported. The samples resembled enough with genetic markers from a 40,000-year-old Norwegian polar bear fossil.
On the other hand, Gutierrez took help of GenBank, the database of gene samples, and found the genetic sequence of the hair samples. After a careful and extensive comparison, Gutierrez concluded that the samples lacked a complete DNA sequence to finally decide whether it was of Alaskan polar bear or the brown bear.
Gutierrez, however, came to the conclusion that the samples were most probably from the brown bear since polar bears do not exist in the Himalayas.
Sykes, however, did not accept Gutierrez and Pine's claim readily. He believed that their findings were "entirely statistical".
"The explanation by Gutierrez and Pine might be right, or it might not be," Sykes wrote.
Sykes has opined that the only way to find the truth is to locate a living bear that has a matching 12S RNA and study some fresh samples from it.
Meanwhile, Gutierrez has also brought the idea of Asian black bear in the big picture. In a news release, he said that a close Asian black bear diversity study "would surely yield exciting results."