1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:09,840 Speaker 1: I'm Lauren vogel Bomb, and you know everybody loves a 3 00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:13,440 Speaker 1: good cryptid. If the classic creatures of legend and hearsay, well, 4 00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:16,880 Speaker 1: the Locknus monster, for example, or sasquatch are too campy 5 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:19,480 Speaker 1: for your tastes, perhaps your interest would be piqued by 6 00:00:19,480 --> 00:00:21,920 Speaker 1: the groot slang a giant snake with an elephant's head 7 00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:24,639 Speaker 1: said to hang out in caves of northwestern South Africa, 8 00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:28,600 Speaker 1: or the Yahwi, basically the big foot of the Australian outback, 9 00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:32,880 Speaker 1: or the Mapingaree, a giant sloth like ape reportedly lurking 10 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:36,520 Speaker 1: in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Brazil and Bolivia. 11 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:39,520 Speaker 1: If your game to dive into the waters of cryptozoology, 12 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:44,240 Speaker 1: you'll be there, awhile because they are fathomless. Science, however, 13 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:47,240 Speaker 1: will rarely dive in there with you, but it has 14 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 1: on occasion made an exception for the yetty. If you 15 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,960 Speaker 1: were to ask, hey, are the Yetti just a bunch 16 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:58,000 Speaker 1: of bears, genetics would say yes. The Yetti, or the 17 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: great white abominable snowman of the Himalayas, is one of 18 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:04,080 Speaker 1: the world's most beloved cryptids. It's a major figure in 19 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:07,280 Speaker 1: the folklore of Nepal, and hikers are constantly reporting to 20 00:01:07,319 --> 00:01:10,360 Speaker 1: have seen a giant, white, ape like creature stalking around 21 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:13,399 Speaker 1: the mountains. Some even claim to have brought home a 22 00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:15,320 Speaker 1: piece of one of these beasts, a tuft of hair, 23 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:18,600 Speaker 1: a bone, some skin, a tooth, or some abominable dung. 24 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:21,760 Speaker 1: These Yetty souvenirs have made their way into museums and 25 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:24,760 Speaker 1: private collections over the years, and now nine of them 26 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: formed the basis for a study investigating the reality behind 27 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,200 Speaker 1: the folk tales. The study, published in the Proceedings of 28 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:34,720 Speaker 1: the Royal Society b finds that of the alleged yetty 29 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:38,480 Speaker 1: bits genetically sequenced by the international team of researchers, all 30 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:42,240 Speaker 1: revealed themselves to be of very commonplace origin, eight bears 31 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:46,120 Speaker 1: and a dog. There was diversity in the species of bears. 32 00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:49,520 Speaker 1: One Asian black bear was represented, one Himalayan brown bear, 33 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 1: and six Tibetan brown bears. The researchers suggest that similar 34 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: genetic studies should be able to help unravel other cryptid legends. 35 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:01,560 Speaker 1: Where previous genetic studies of possible cryptids looked only at 36 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:05,640 Speaker 1: mitochondrial DNA, this research team gave those cave bones and 37 00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: wads of hair. The full works applied PCR amplification, mitochondrial sequencing, 38 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:16,080 Speaker 1: mitochondrial genome assembly, and phylogenetic analysis. According to the researchers, 39 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:18,800 Speaker 1: this makes it the most rigorous analysis of anomalous or 40 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: mythical hominid like creatures to date. The team also sequenced 41 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:26,480 Speaker 1: mitochondrial DNA of twenty three Asian bears and compared them 42 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:29,280 Speaker 1: with bears around the world. They found the Tibetan brown 43 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:31,919 Speaker 1: bear to be more closely related to American bears than 44 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,080 Speaker 1: they are to their neighbors, the Himalayan bear. In fact, 45 00:02:35,200 --> 00:02:38,799 Speaker 1: the two species probably split along two separate evolutionary lineages 46 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: around six hundred and fifty thousand years ago during a 47 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:44,880 Speaker 1: major ice age. And just in case you were wondering, 48 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:47,560 Speaker 1: who compiled the bear parts that the team used for 49 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:51,400 Speaker 1: their research, they were assembled by a Animal Planet team 50 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:54,400 Speaker 1: for a special titled Yetti or Nut, which explored the 51 00:02:54,440 --> 00:03:02,440 Speaker 1: myths behind the monster. Today's episode was written by Jesplyin 52 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: Shields and produced by Tyler Claang. For more on this 53 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:07,520 Speaker 1: and lots of other mythic topics, visit our home planet, 54 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:20,239 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com.