- LONDON (dpa) - British scientists
on the trail of the Yeti have found some of the best evidence yet for the
existence of the mythical Himalayan creature a sample of hair that has
proved impossible to identify, according to a publshed report Monday.
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- Genetic tests on the hair, which was gathered from a
tree in Bhutan, have failed to match its DNA to that of another animal,
said the report in The Times.
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- The findings, which have surprised sceptical researchers,
raise the strong possibility that the sample belongs to an as yet undiscovered
species.
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- In Bhutan, an expedition team was led by an official
Yeti-hunter" to a forest in the eastern part of the country, where
he was convinced that an animal was at large.
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- He told us that he had found evidence of the Yeti in
the hollow of a cedar tree," Rob McCall, a zoologist who was part
of the expedition, was quoted as saying. Dr. McCall's team removed strands
of hair from the tree and returned to Britain to have them analysed.
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- Bryan Sykes, professor of Human Genetics at the Oxford
Institute of Molecular Medicine, one of the world's leading experts on
DNA analysis, who examined the hair, told The Times: "We found some
DNA in it, but we don't know what it is. It's not a human, not a bear nor
anything else we have so far been able to identify. It's a mystery and
I never thought this would end in a mystery. We have never encountered
DNA that we couldn't recognise before."
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