Science

DNA Analysis Debunks Long-Held Belief on ‘Yeti Finger’

 

DNA Analysis Reveals Long Believed Yeti Finger Really Just Human Bone

Ian Redmond examines the "yeti" finger. (Photo via BBC)

Nepalese monks long believed this finger, said to be from a yeti, was a talisman against bad luck, according to the Daily Mail. In a dramatic tale of how the finger was almost stolen and then reluctantly given to an American, the true identity of the of the finger has been reveled by DNA analysis more than 50 years since it was taken from the monastery.

DNA Analysis Reveals Long Believed Yeti Finger Really Just Human Bone

This bone was once believed to be a yeti finger. (Photo via BBC)

The answer, as you might expect, is anticlimactic. It’s a human finger.

The Daily Mail reports that Irish-American explorer Peter Byrne had been searching for evidence of yetis in the 1950s and heard of a rumor of a preserved hand in the Pangboche Monastery. When he trekked to the monastery in Nepal he was told by the monks, as would be expected, that he couldn’t have it. What transpired next, involved Byrne considering stealing a finger off the hand, at the request of American Tom Slick who was financing his endeavor and wanted to analyze the bone and replacing it with a human finger. Luckily, the monks eventually agree to part with a finger but Bryne still had to attach the human finger and make it look real:

Byrne returned to the monastery, and although the monks were reluctant, they eventually agreed to part with the finger for £100 — only if Byrne could find a way of disguising the missing digit.

The mountaineer wired the human finger on to the relic, before painting it with iodine to make it look the same colour as the rest of the hand. He now faced a perilous journey home.

In the previous year, the Nepalese government — bizarrely — had brought in a law making it illegal for foreigners to kill a Yeti.

Watch the Huffington Post report for more:

The finger was brought back to London with help from movie star Jimmy Stewart from “It’s a Wonderful Life” and his wife who hid it in her luggage to get it through customs. It was given to a primatologist Professor William Osman Hill who analyzed it and determined that it was not human. From there, the case was closed and the finger was stored at the Royal College of Surgeons museum in London.

That was until it was rediscovered and analyzed by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. A BBC program announced the results. BBC has more from the society:

Dr. Rob Ogden, of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said: “We had to stitch it together. We had several fragments that we put into one big sequence and then we matched that against the database and we found human DNA.

“So it wasn‘t too surprising but it was obviously slightly disappointing that you hadn’t discovered something brand new.

“Human was what we were expecting and human is what we got.”

Primatologist Ian Redmond said: “From what we know of accounts of Yetis, I would have expected a more robust and longer finger and possibly with some hair on the back.

“If one had just found it without the story attached to it, I think you would think it was a human finger.

DNA Analysis Reveals Long Believed Yeti Finger Really Just Human Bone

(Image: BBC video screenshot)

Even though it was found to be human, the Daily Mail reports that some are hoping the digit can be returned to its rightful owner, the monastery.

Earlier this year we reported a group of Siberian scientists reported they were 95 percent sure evidence supported the existence of yetis.

Comments (66)

1 2
  • paleoman
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 12:26pm

    No, its the obama man snowmans finger. Thats not human, right or is it.

    Report Post »  
    • beckwasfox
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 6:43pm

      There is a giant lesbian lurking around our town. I am convinced she is the Abominable No Man.

      Report Post » beckwasfox  
  • midnightvelvet
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 12:07pm

    I wonder if the Nepalese will still clamor to have it back?

    Report Post »  
  • cranberry
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 11:10am

    I guess we all like to half believe there could be some giant hairy creature out in the wilds hiding from millions of people… but thank goodness for DNA. It disproves all of this nonsense. Now we have shows like hauntings and ghosts in scary places, that has taken the place of the old yeti and big foot stuff..something halfway new to half believe.

    Report Post » cranberry  
    • trolltrainer
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 1:14pm

      Not that I particularly believe in yetis, but that was a huge jump in logic you just made! DNA tests reveal this particular item is a human finger so that disproves the existence of bigfoot? Really?

      Report Post »  
    • Browncoat359
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 2:01pm

      Elephants,gorillas,and many,many other animals were considered to be made up by attention seeking loud mouths at one point in history too. There’s nothing inherently unbelievable about the idea that there could be a large primate out there that science refuses to consider as real. Science and our understanding of the natural world is always changing so ridiculing the idea of yeti’s/sasquatches being actual animals is rather silly.
      By the way those familiar with previous yeti relics will recall the story of the yeti scalps that were housed in a Hiamalayan monastery that,when tested and thourouhly analyzed,were found to be something more akin to a reindeer. I‘m not dismissing anyone’s religious beliefs but just bear in mind that things like the shroud of Turin has it’s believers and detractors too. The shroud itself is real(tangible) but the long held belief that it once covered Christ has yet to be verified by science.
      Lack of proor is not proof itself.

      Report Post » Browncoat359  
    • jens63
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:10pm

      99.7% of the base pairs of the modern human and Neanderthal genomes are identical-from neanderthal genome project.
      Is this relavant, this article said they put together several fragments to come to their conclusion…

      Report Post »  
    • Rowgue
      Posted on December 30, 2011 at 4:56pm

      The giant squid was also thought to be nothing but a figment of Jules Verne’s active imagination until they found the first one in 2006.

      The likelyhood of the yeti or bigfoot existing is admittedly not very high in my book, but then I would have said the same thing about the giant squid in 2005.

      Report Post »  
  • Gonzo
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 10:49am

    I would expect a Yeti to share DNA with humans. Not saying I believe in them but, I don’t think this diproves them either.

    Report Post » Gonzo  
    • Rowgue
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 12:03pm

      The chimpanzee‘s DNA doesn’t differ from humans very much, but you can still tell chimp DNA from human DNA. You can tell the difference in the DNA of different species of the same animal. You can identify specific individuals within the same species because their DNA is unique enough.

      Human DNA is human DNA, period.

      Report Post »  
    • stormdwhitehouse
      Posted on December 30, 2011 at 4:04pm

      Something like 95 % of human DNA is not mapped. They dont know where it comes from. This leaves open a pretty large door i think.

      Report Post » stormdwhitehouse  
    • Rowgue
      Posted on December 30, 2011 at 4:45pm

      @STORM

      You’re confusing a couple of things. What your’e talking about is the mapping of the human genome. That’s an entirely different concept than simply identifying DNA. All DNA in both humans and animals is chemically the same. The way they differentiate one DNA sample from another is the sequence in which the base chemical pairs occur. Every individual DNA sample has unique repeating patterns that uniquely identify it. That is all that’s needed to identify a sample.

      The genome mapping project is concerned with something else entirely. What that is attempting to do is to map the entire sequence of chemical base pairs in individuals and determine how that specific sequencing works to determine what makes that person’s individual physiology function as it does. The goal of this is that they hope to be able to link specific sequences with different healthy and unhealthy conditions of human physiology, which would provide a whole new prospective on future research of medical conditions.

      Report Post »  
  • mike o
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 10:22am

    pretty simple, the dna is human because so is the yeti, it’s cain. come on, it’s so obvious

    Report Post »  
  • AmericanBumpkin
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 10:21am

    Maybe at one point there really was a person who was born with that werewolf syndrom that covered his whole body with hair, who ended up being exiled from his small village to the mountains for being fuzzy. then years later all that hair turned white with age and living up in the mountains and the first monk that saw him thought he was a monster and screamed “AH! YETI!” then they killed the poor guy and kept his hand as a trophy.
    its just a theory, but its one that i havent heard any of these scientists or “specialists” throw out yet.

    Report Post »  
    • constantnfaithful
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 12:07pm

      I love this theory. This is one that makes perfect sense. Along the same line, I’ve always thought that petroglyphs were an ancient form of teenage graffiti. Who knows, could be true.

      Report Post »  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 10:12am

    Wow! I didn‘t know that Yeti’s had Human DNA! LOL

    Report Post » The-Monk  
  • avgconservative
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 10:07am

    @Liz Klimaz… Do you proof any of your writings?

    “…the true identity of the of the finger has been reveled by DNA analysis more than 50 years since it was taken from the monastery.

    The answer, as you might expect, is anticlimactic.”

    How can you repeat “of the” and misspell revealed (see “reveled” above), then spell anticlimactic perfectly????

    Are you an OWS’er? Do you type or do you only text? Do you know what spell-check is? Have you had a class on grammar?

    How are you working for this blog? Has Glenn seen this crapola?

    Are we to take your writings seriously when you write like a 3rd grader?

    Embarrassing for me to recommend “The Blaze” to friends when this shows up… sorry.

    http://FlipTheLib.com

    Report Post » avgconservative  
    • mike o
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 10:30am

      you should read the story on the girl scouts. the spelling is even worse on that one. i am not quite that interested but it would be mildly interesting to see if there is even one story here that isn‘t riddled with tyypo’s.

      Report Post »  
  • cemerius
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 10:05am

    Hey Barry!! Your wife‘s a bigfoot isn’t she? You found her, shaved her, and taught her to talk? How about them kids do they dive when they fish? Do they say gooney goo goo? Thats NOT Spanish Barry!!! -Eddie Murphy…….

    Report Post » cemerius  
  • cemerius
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 10:03am

    Hurry up!! Someone count Moochelle’s fingers!!!!

    Report Post » cemerius  
  • GERATMO
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 9:57am

    So not one person here thinks it could be possible that big foot exists? I like to keep an open mind, it makes it a little more fun. ANd yes, you can believe in God and some science at the same time. Thousands of sightings and thousands of years of history say it could be possible.

    Report Post » GERATMO  
    • saranda
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 3:33pm

      Within my family there have been two very clear concise sightings in the Kootenay region of British Columbia. I have no doubt that both are telling the truth. BTW these sightings were separated by a couple years so it was not that both were fooled by the same object/thing.

      Report Post »  
    • kaydeebeau
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 5:53pm

      The really sad thing is that ther are many who believe in yeti, sasquatch, alien visitations and will dispute the existance of God – a god whose existance could be proved would be an idle. – D. Bonhoffer

      Report Post » kaydeebeau  
    • trolltrainer
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 7:10pm

      idol

      Report Post »  
  • TROONORTH
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 9:51am

    It is a well known fact that these so called DNA specialists are members of a huge world wide YETI conspiracy that was about to be outed by the, now dead, ‘Dear Leader’. And if you don‘t believe that then explain why six men mysteriously disappeared from the crowd watching ’Dear Leader‘s’ funeral , when it passed by the very spot that JFK had decided to bomb just before Elvis paid off the Cubans to come to Dallas and . . … . .. .. . . .. . ..

    Report Post » TROONORTH  
  • SREGN
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:43am

    Isn’t it funny how believers in Yetis and UFOs consider themselves far too intelligent to believe in God?

    Report Post »  
    • MrMagoo
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 10:24am

      Ain‘t it funny how people just blindly believe in so called ’scientists’?
      The Al Gore followers,whatever you say,Al.I’m a full fledged Sierra Communist Club member….NOT!!!!!

      Report Post » MrMagoo  
  • saigonpaul
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 6:44am

    yeti ……….. this only shows that things are not as they seem, yeti (human), obama (president), or……………….

    Report Post »  
  • piper60
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 4:23am

    No matter how much evidence to the contrary, there will always be people who believe in Yeti’s. Witness the series on Animal Planet that’s going into its second season this next week.

    Report Post » piper60  
    • DirkPitt
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:49am

      LOL! I can’t get my wife to STOP watching that show. She gets mad at me every time I make a joke about how totally dumb it is. “shhhh, I think a squatch just threw a rock at me”……LOL

      Report Post »  
    • Scooder
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 9:49am

      I’ve contacted Animal Planet about airing my new show–Finding The Tooth Fairy. I’m even going to finance it myself. How, you ask? I just happen to know a guy who has a friend who has a “money tree”! Yep, and it’s the 100 bill kind, yeah I know how rare the 100 dollar ones are. But I believe him, ’cause he said the secret is in the soil and he fertilizes with “bigfoot” poop. Anyways, if anyone out there has any Tooth Fairy sightings feel free to contact me. CAUTION: Never approach a Tooth Fairy, their wands yield powers that we don’t fully understand yet!

      Report Post »  
  • NoLongerNonPlussed
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 3:39am

    I think I may understand why the old testament condemned witches and whichcraft. If you don’t snuff it out early you end up with the oxymoron: new ungodly creations.

    Think about it. First we scare our children with tales of wicked witches, but we temper these with stories of abductions by the huge and hairy, yet always shy and illusive Yeti or Bigfoot. Then we get the more sinister stories of ghosts, goblins and rival fairies. Then we jump off into necromancery and scare everyone with stories of zombies. When that no longer scares or stimulates, we create warewolfs and vampires.

    This is tragic! All that we humans can create is inhumane and unholy. Maybe the Roman Catholic Church did us all a disservice when it selectively collated some of the scriptures into the first version of the Holy Bible and then declared it complete and un-addendum-able.
    It would be refreshing about now to have some new stories of angel messengers visiting our world and leading us back to godliness. Those type of stories would assuredly beat the crap being peddled as scientific discovery and/or entertainment nowadays.

    Report Post » NoLongerNonPlussed  
    • Zetareticuli
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:03am

      “It would be refreshing about now to have some new stories of angel messengers visiting our world and leading us back to godliness.”

      Are you Mormon? Because that’s exactly how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started (or was “restored”) in 1830.

      Report Post »  
    • 4truth2all
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 9:02am

      “leading back to godliness” … this is quite simple … follow the guide that leads to godliness … that being the scriptures (bible) that you seem to be willing to rid yourself of, which is the reason the world is in the mess it is. We don’t need something new ! We need to do what has already been given …PROBLEM SOLVED ! {godliness = being like God.} How do you expect to acheive this without following His instructions ?

      Report Post »  
    • vermindust
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 9:50am

      You say “necromancy” like it’s a bad thing.

      Report Post » vermindust  
  • Chuck Stein
    Posted on December 29, 2011 at 1:56am

    Michael Medved must be bummed out.

    Report Post »  
  • vtxphantom
    Posted on December 28, 2011 at 11:55pm

    Return their property.

    Give them the finger!

    Report Post »  
  • Uriel
    Posted on December 28, 2011 at 11:24pm

    Thank goodness researchers have discovered that the dreaded “Yeti-finger” is not related to DNA and is not genetic.

    Now, I can have children without the fear of passing on this horrific condition.

    ……..
    what?
    ……..
    oh,
    ……..
    ……
    nevermind.

    Report Post »  
  • katie5
    Posted on December 28, 2011 at 10:43pm

    Can you imagine what it was like when Jimmy Stewart had to answer questions going through customs?

    Report Post »  
    • P C BE DAMNED
      Posted on December 28, 2011 at 11:04pm

      Speaking of Bigfoot. When I used to have a horse farm. Birds would build nests in the area made of horse hair. Well I was just putting two and two together and Bigfoot may be able to hide from man but he could never hide from birds and their need for nest materials. So the question is, why can’t scientists take birds nests in these so called Bigfoot areas and test for signs of unknown DNA. Its to simple an answer and it tells me there is no Bigfoot or Yeti.

      Report Post » P C BE DAMNED  
    • MCDAVE
      Posted on December 28, 2011 at 11:22pm

      It”s fun to believe in Bigfoot..I had an interest in this my whole life… but after 50 years..Not one piece of physical evidence to prove he exist.

      Report Post »  
    • Restore the Republic
      Posted on December 28, 2011 at 11:41pm

      You know what they say about people with big feet……

      they need big shoes… get your mind out of the gutter.

      Report Post » Restore the Republic  
    • Pontiac
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 1:03am

      [what it was like when Jimmy Stewart had to answer questions going through customs?]
      In 1959, probably not a damn thing. It’s the same year he became Brigadier General.

      Report Post » Pontiac  
  • Quagaar Warrior
    Posted on December 28, 2011 at 10:31pm

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Maybe it‘s a soccer player’s finger.
    Oops, wrong mountain range. Sorry!

    (I wonder how many people will figure that one out).
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Report Post »  
  • USAMEDIC3008
    Posted on December 28, 2011 at 10:14pm

    I say givem back The Finger

    Report Post » USAMEDIC3008  
    • USAMEDIC3008
      Posted on December 28, 2011 at 10:31pm

      You would think finding the g-spot would be easy to find
      compaired to finding a Yeti,But I have a few friends who hunt
      every chance they get . havent been able to find either one yet……..i

      Report Post » USAMEDIC3008  
    • tharpdevenport
      Posted on December 29, 2011 at 4:56am

      So, are you saying…

      Give them the finger?

      Report Post » tharpdevenport  
  • ZengaPA65
    Posted on December 28, 2011 at 10:13pm

    Why do we need The Weekly World News http://weeklyworldnews.com/ ? We got The Blaze and they both claim to be the truth too.

    Report Post » ZengaPA65  
  • Stoic one
    Posted on December 28, 2011 at 10:06pm

    The uses of DNA sequencing…..

    Report Post » Stoic one  
  • Scaz
    Posted on December 28, 2011 at 10:02pm

    “The answer, as you might expect, is anticlimactic. It’s a human finger.”

    It’s not anti-climactic to the guy who’s finger it is.

    Oh yeah, FIRST>

    Report Post » Scaz  
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