94-724: The Yeti ( / ˈ j ɛ t i / ) is an ape -like creature purported to inhabit the Himalayan mountain range in Asia. In Western popular culture, the creature is commonly referred to as the Abominable Snowman . Many dubious articles have been offered in an attempt to prove the existence of the Yeti, including anecdotal visual sightings, disputed video recordings, photographs, and plaster casts of large footprints. Some of these are speculated or known to be hoaxes . Folklorists trace
188-448: A brown bear ( Ursus arctos ) and an Asiatic black bear ( Ursus thibetanus ). In 1986, South Tyrolean mountaineer Reinhold Messner claimed in his autobiography My Quest for the Yeti that the Yeti is actually the endangered Himalayan brown bear , Ursus arctos isabellinus , or Tibetan blue bear , U. a. pruinosus , which can walk both upright or on all fours. The 1983 Barun Valley discoveries prompted three years of research on
282-548: A clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and counting humans are found globally). Apes are more closely related to Old World monkeys (family Cercopithecidae) than to the New World monkeys (Platyrrhini) with both Old World monkeys and apes placed in the clade Catarrhini . Apes do not have tails due to
376-519: A Himalayan brown bear, while other purported yeti samples were actually from the Tibetan blue bear, Asiatic black bear and a domestic dog. In 2017, Daniel C. Taylor published a comprehensive analysis of the century-long Yeti literature, giving added evidence to the ( Ursus thibetanus ) explanation, building on the initial Barun Valley discoveries. This book gave a meticulous explanation for the iconic Yeti footprint photographed by Eric Shipton in 1950,
470-555: A TV show, Gates presented hair samples with a forensic analyst concluding that the hair contained an unknown DNA sequence. On 25 July 2008, the BBC reported that hairs collected in the remote Garo Hills area of North-East India by Dipu Marak had been analysed at Oxford Brookes University in the UK by primatologist Anna Nekaris and microscopy expert Jon Wells. These initial tests were inconclusive, and ape conservation expert Ian Redmond told
564-489: A bipedal ape (like the hominids ), walking upright would have been even more difficult for the now extinct primate than it is for its extant quadrupedal relative, the orangutan . In 2013, a call was put out by scientists from the universities of Oxford and Lausanne for people claiming to have samples from these sorts of creatures. A mitochondrial DNA analysis of the 12S RNA gene was undertaken on samples of hair from an unidentified animal from Ladakh in northern India on
658-425: A brown bear and a polar bear. A research of 12S rRNA published in 2015 revealed that the hair samples collected are most likely those of brown bears. In 2017, a new analysis compared mtDNA sequences of bears from the region with DNA extracted from hair and other samples claimed to have come from yeti. It included hair thought to be from the same preserved specimen as the anomalous Sykes sample, and showed it to have been
752-449: A close relationship between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom. Linnaeus's Lutheran archbishop had accused him of "impiety". In a letter to Johann Georg Gmelin dated 25 February 1747, Linnaeus wrote: It is not pleasing to me that I must place humans among the primates, but man is intimately familiar with himself. Let's not quibble over words. It will be the same to me whatever name is applied. But I desperately seek from you and from
846-478: A gorilla that ate meat and vegetation. This was later revealed as a hoax or possibly a publicity stunt for charity. In April 2019, an Indian army mountaineering expedition team claimed to have spotted mysterious 'Yeti' footprints, measuring 81 by 38 cm (32 by 15 in), near the Makalu base camp. The misidentification of Himalayan wildlife has been proposed as an explanation for some Yeti sightings, including
940-603: A group of porters encountered very large bipedal prints in soft mud at 14,000 ft (4,300 m) just below the Singalila Ridge , which the porters said were of the "Jungli Admi" (wild man). The creature had come up through bushes on the steep hillside from Nepal and crossed the track before continuing up to the ridge. Cooke wrote "We laid Maragaret's sunglasses beside each print to indicate its size and took photographs. These prints were strange and larger than any normal human foot, 14 in (360 mm) heel to toe, with
1034-611: A letter to The Times : The whole story seemed such a joyous creation I sent it to one or two newspapers". According to H. Siiger, the Yeti was a part of the pre- Buddhist beliefs of several Himalayan people. He was told that the Lepcha people worshipped a "Glacier Being" as a God of the Hunt. He also reported that followers of the Bön religion once believed the blood of the "mi rgod" or "wild man" had use in certain spiritual ceremonies. The being
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#17327719860251128-529: A man, but only 6 to 7 in (150 to 180 mm) long by 4 in (100 mm) wide... The prints were undoubtedly those of a biped." During the autumn of 1937, John Hunt and Pasang Sherpa (later Pasang Dawa Lama) encountered footprints on the approaches to and at the Zemu Gap above the Zemu Glacier that were thought to belong to a pair of Yetis. In June 1944, C.R. Cooke , his wife Maragaret, and
1222-400: A minute. "Unquestionably, the figure in outline was exactly like a human being, walking upright and stopping occasionally to pull at some dwarf rhododendron bushes. It showed up dark against the snow, and as far as I could make out, wore no clothes." About two hours later, Tombazi and his companions descended the mountain and saw the creature's prints, described as "similar in shape to those of
1316-540: A misnomer is provided by Tibetan language authority Professor David Snellgrove from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London (ca. 1956), who dismissed the word "metch" as impossible, because the consonants "t-c-h" cannot be conjoined in the Tibetan language. Documentation suggests that the term "metch-kangmi" is derived from one source (from the year 1921). It has been suggested that "metch"
1410-582: A mutation of the TBXT gene . In traditional and non-scientific use, the term ape can include tailless primates taxonomically considered Cercopithecidae (such as the Barbary ape and black ape ), and is thus not equivalent to the scientific taxon Hominoidea. There are two extant branches of the superfamily Hominoidea: the gibbons , or lesser apes; and the hominids , or great apes . Except for gorillas and humans, hominoids are agile climbers of trees. Apes eat
1504-404: A number of large prints in the snow, at about 6,000 m (20,000 ft) above sea level. Shipton took three photographs, one depicting the track, and other two of one particular print which was size compared by a pickaxe, and boot. The footprints had distinct two large toes, and three smaller digits close together. These photos have been subject to intense scrutiny and debate. Some argue they are
1598-539: A second species in Homo along with H. sapiens : Homo troglodytes ("cave-dwelling man"). Although the term "Orang Outang" is listed as a variety – Homo sylvestris – under this species, it is nevertheless not clear to which animal this name refers, as Linnaeus had no specimen to refer to, hence no precise description. Linnaeus may have based Homo troglodytes on reports of mythical creatures, then-unidentified simians , or Asian natives dressed in animal skins. Linnaeus named
1692-568: A series of footprints in the Everest region of Nepal resembling descriptions of Yeti. Each of the footprints measured 33 cm (13 in) in length with five toes that measured a total of 25 cm (9.8 in) across. Casts were made of the prints for further research. The footprints were examined by Jeffrey Meldrum of Idaho State University, who believed them to be too morphologically accurate to be fake or man-made, before changing his mind after making further investigations. Later in 2009, in
1786-552: A tail on the creature's corpse. It is described as being roughly six to seven feet tall. There are additional tales of large, reclusive, bipedal creatures worldwide, notably including both " Bigfoot " and the "Abominable Snowman." The name Abominable Snowman was coined in 1921, the year Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Howard-Bury led the 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition , which he chronicled in Mount Everest The Reconnaissance, 1921 . In
1880-428: A tail. Monkeys are more likely to be in trees and use their tails for balance. While the great apes are considerably larger than monkeys, gibbons (lesser apes) are smaller than some monkeys. Apes are considered to be more intelligent than monkeys, which are considered to have more primitive brains. The enzyme urate oxidase has become inactive in all apes, its function having been lost in two primate lineages during
1974-413: A variety of plant and animal foods, with the majority of food being plant foods, which can include fruits, leaves, stalks, roots and seeds, including nuts and grass seeds. Human diets are sometimes substantially different from that of other hominoids due in part to the development of technology and a wide range of habitation. All non-human hominoids are rare and threatened with extinction . The main threat
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#17327719860252068-738: A yeti expedition into Nepal's Barun Valley (suggested by discovery in the Barun in 1972 of footprints alleged to be yeti by Cronin & McNeely). The Taylor-Fleming expedition also discovered similar yeti-like footprints (hominoid appearing with both a hallux and bipedal gait), intriguing large nests in trees, and vivid reports from local villagers of two bears, rukh bhalu ('tree bear', small, reclusive, weighing about 150 pounds (68 kg)) and bhui bhalu ('ground bear', aggressive, weighing up to 400 pounds (180 kg)). Further interviews across Nepal gave evidence of local belief in two different bears. Skulls were collected, these were compared to known skulls at
2162-654: A young Tibetan into his personal employ in order to have someone with whom to practise speaking Tibetan. He also travelled in the small Himalayan state of Sikkim , and on one such visit he met Sir Basil Gould , who was then the British Representative for Tibet. Inspired to work in Tibet, in 1946 after he left the Army he sat the entrance exams for the Indian Civil Service . This was the first time
2256-519: Is habitat loss , though some populations are further imperiled by hunting. The great apes of Africa are also facing threat from the Ebola virus . "Ape", from Old English apa , is a word of uncertain origin. The term has a history of rather imprecise usage—and of comedic or punning usage in the vernacular. Its earliest meaning was generally of any non-human anthropoid primate, as is still the case for its cognates in other Germanic languages. Later, after
2350-507: Is complex and somewhat confusing. Recent evidence has changed our understanding of the relationships between the hominoids, especially regarding the human lineage; and the traditionally used terms have become somewhat confused. Competing approaches to methodology and terminology are found among current scientific sources. Over time, authorities have changed the names and the meanings of names of groups and subgroups as new evidence — that is, new discoveries of fossils and tools and of observations in
2444-613: Is derived from Tibetan : གཡའ་དྲེད་ , Wylie : g.ya' dred , ZYPY : Yachê , a compound of the words Tibetan : གཡའ་ , Wylie : g.ya' , ZYPY : ya "rocky", "rocky place" and ( Tibetan : དྲེད་ , Wylie : dred , ZYPY : chê ) "bear". Pranavananda states that the words "ti", "te" and "teh" are derived from the spoken word 'tre' (spelled "dred"), Tibetan for bear, with the 'r' so softly pronounced as to be almost inaudible, thus making it "te" or "teh". Tibetan lore describes three main varieties of Yetis—the Nyalmo , which has black fur and
2538-436: Is derived from, and intended as encompassing, the hominids , the family of great apes . Both terms were introduced by Gray (1825). The term hominins is also due to Gray (1824), intended as including the human lineage (see also Hominidae#Terminology , Human taxonomy ). The distinction between apes and monkeys is complicated by the traditional paraphyly of monkeys: Apes emerged as a sister group of Old World Monkeys in
2632-477: Is not enough to blame tales of the mysterious beast of the Himalayas on words that rhyme but mean different things." Some speculate these reported creatures could be present-day specimens of the extinct giant ape Gigantopithecus . However, the Yeti is generally described as bipedal, and most scientists believe Gigantopithecus to have been quadrupedal , and so massive that, unless it evolved specifically as
2726-603: Is often considered a bad omen, for which the witness must accumulate merit . In 1832, James Prinsep 's Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal published trekker B. H. Hodgson 's account of his experiences in northern Nepal. His local guides spotted a tall bipedal creature covered with long dark hair, which seemed to flee in fear. Hodgson concluded it was an orangutan . An early record of reported footprints appeared in 1899 in Laurence Waddell 's Among
2820-522: Is simply a misspelling of "metoh". The use of "Abominable Snowman" began when Henry Newman, a longtime contributor to The Statesman in Calcutta , writing under the pen name "Kim", interviewed the porters of the "Everest Reconnaissance expedition" on their return to Darjeeling. Newman mistranslated the word "metoh" as "filthy", substituting the term "abominable", perhaps out of artistic licence. As author Bill Tilman recounts, "[Newman] wrote long after in
2914-564: Is the largest and fiercest, standing around fifteen feet tall; the Chuti , which stands around eight feet tall and lives 8,000 and 10,000 ft (2,400 and 3,000 m) above sea level; and the Rang Shim Bombo , which has reddish-brown fur and is only 3 and 5 ft (0.91 and 1.52 m) tall. Other terms used by Himalayan peoples do not translate exactly the same, but refer to legendary and indigenous wildlife: In Russian folklore ,
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3008-474: Is their long arms, which they use to brachiate through trees. Their wrists are ball and socket joints as an evolutionary adaptation to their arboreal lifestyle. Generally smaller than the African apes, the largest gibbon, the siamang , weighs up to 14 kg (31 lb); in comparison, the smallest "great ape", the bonobo , is 34 to 60 kg (75 to 132 lb). The superfamily Hominoidea falls within
3102-463: The 1960–61 Silver Hut expedition to the Himalayas, which was to collect and analyse physical evidence of the Yeti. Hillary borrowed a supposed Yeti scalp from the Khumjung monastery then himself and Khumjo Chumbi (the village headman), brought the scalp back to London where a small sample was cut off for testing. Marca Burns made a detailed examination of the sample of skin and hair from the margin of
3196-512: The American Alpine Club , Robert H. Bates, this yeti discovery "has apparently solved the mystery of the yeti, or at least part of it, and in so doing added to the world's great wildlife preserves", so that the shy animal, and the mysteries and myths of the Himalayas that it represents, can continue to live within a protected area nearly the size of Switzerland. In 2003, Japanese researcher and mountaineer Dr. Makoto Nebuka published
3290-608: The Chuchuna is an entity said to dwell in Siberia . It has been described as six to seven feet tall and covered with dark hair. According to the native accounts from the nomadic Yakut and Tungus tribes, it is a well built, Neanderthal -like man wearing pelts and bearing a white patch of fur on its forearms. It is said to occasionally consume human flesh, unlike their close cousins, the Almastis . Some witnesses reported seeing
3384-515: The Hooghly River . A few months after beginning his posting he contracted malaria and was sent to the military hospital at Lebong , just north of Darjeeling . It was while he was at Lebong that he began his future life's calling by purchasing some books about Tibet by Charles Bell as well as a Tibetan Grammar and Reader. Snellgrove returned to Darjeeling, from where he sometimes went on leave to Kalimpong . On one of these visits he took
3478-1307: The Old World monkeys about 25 million years ago (mya), near the Oligocene–Miocene boundary . The gibbons split from the rest about 18 mya, and the hominid splits happened 14 mya ( Pongo ), 7 mya ( Gorilla ), and 3–5 mya ( Homo & Pan ). In 2015, a new genus and species were described, Pliobates cataloniae , which lived 11.6 mya, and appears to predate the split between Hominidae and Hylobatidae. Saadanioidea (†28) Victoriapithecinae (†19) Crown Cercopithecoidea Dendropithecidae (†7 Mya) Ekembo heseloni (†17 Mya) Proconsulidae (†18 Mya) Ekembo nyanzae (†17 Mya) Equatorius (†16) Pliobates (†11.6 Mya) Morotopithecus (†20) Afropithecus (†16) Hominidae Hylobatidae humans (genus Homo ) [REDACTED] chimpanzees (genus Pan ) [REDACTED] gorillas (genus Gorilla ) [REDACTED] orangutans (genus Pongo ) [REDACTED] gibbons/lesser apes (family Hylobatidae) [REDACTED] Cercopithecoidea [REDACTED] Old World monkeys The families, and extant genera and species of hominoids are: The history of hominoid taxonomy
3572-609: The Shennongjia Forestry District of Hubei province, which was the site of expeditions in the 1970s and 1980s. At a 2011 conference in Russia, participating scientists and enthusiasts declared having "95% evidence" of the Yeti's existence. However, this claim was disputed later; American anthropologist and anatomist Jeffrey Meldrum , who was present during the Russian expedition, claimed the "evidence" found
3666-763: The Smithsonian Institution , American Museum of Natural History , and British Museum , and confirmed identification of a single species, the Asiatic black bear , showing no morphological difference between 'tree bear' and 'ground bear.' (This despite an intriguing skull in the British Museum of a 'tree bear' collected in 1869 by Oldham and discussed in the Annals of the Royal Zoological Society .) In 2004, Henry Gee , editor of
3760-465: The University of Cambridge , Bill Amos, doubted the samples were of polar bears in the Himalayas, but was "90% convinced that there is a bear in these regions that has been mistaken for a yeti". Professor Bryan Sykes , whose team carried out the analysis of the samples at Oxford, has his own theory. He believes that the samples may have come from a hybrid species of bear produced from a mating between
3854-417: The catarrhines , which are a sister group of New World Monkeys. Therefore, cladistically , apes, catarrhines and related contemporary extinct groups such as Parapithecidae are monkeys as well, for any consistent definition of "monkey". "Old World monkey" may also legitimately be taken to be meant to include all the catarrhines, including apes and extinct species such as Aegyptopithecus , in which case
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3948-615: The chu-teh , a langur monkey living at lower altitudes; the Tibetan blue bear ; or the Himalayan brown bear or dzu-teh , also known as the Himalayan red bear. Similarly, it is possible that sightings have been deliberate hoaxes. James Randi notes that convincing costumes of gorillas or other apes have been used in films, which are more convincing than any representations of the Yeti provided by believers. Randi also argues that there would need to be many creatures in order to maintain
4042-539: The parvorder Catarrhini , which also includes the Old World monkeys of Africa and Eurasia. Within this grouping, the two families Hylobatidae and Hominidae can be distinguished from Old World monkeys by the number of cusps on their molars ; hominoids have five in the "Y-5" molar pattern, whereas Old World monkeys have only four in a bilophodont pattern. Further, in comparison with Old World monkeys, hominoids are noted for: more mobile shoulder joints and arms due to
4136-431: The pig-tailed langur , is known to walk significant distances bipedally. The front of the ape skull is characterised by its sinuses, fusion of the frontal bone, and by post-orbital constriction . Cladistically , apes, catarrhines, and extinct species such as Aegyptopithecus and Parapithecidaea , are monkeys, so one can only specify ape features not present in other monkeys. Unlike most monkeys , apes do not possess
4230-664: The 'smoke and mirrors' and gives us a believable yeti". This fieldwork in Nepal's Barun Valley led directly to the initiation of the Makalu-Barun National Park that protected over half a million acres in 1991, and across the border with China, the Qomolangma national nature preserve in the Tibet Autonomous Region that protected over six million acres. In the words of Honorary President of
4324-412: The 'tree bear' possibility by Taylor, Fleming, John Craighead and Tirtha Shrestha. From that research, the conclusion was that the Asiatic black bear , when about two years old, spends much time in trees to avoid attack by larger male bears on the ground ('ground bears'). During this tree period (that may last two years), young bears train their inner claw outward, allowing an opposable grip. The imprint in
4418-514: The 1972 Cronin-McNeely print, as well all other unexplained Yeti footprints. To complete this explanation, Taylor also located a never-before published photograph in the archives of the Royal Geographical Society, taken in 1950 by Eric Shipton , that included scratches that are clearly bear nail marks. Ape sister: Cercopithecoidea Apes (collectively Hominoidea / h ɒ m ɪ ˈ n ɔɪ d i . ə / ) are
4512-504: The BBC that there was similarity between the cuticle pattern of these hairs and specimens collected by Edmund Hillary during Himalayan expeditions in the 1950s and donated to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History , and announced planned DNA analysis. This analysis has since revealed that the hair came from the Himalayan goral . A group of Chinese scientists and explorers in 2010 proposed to renew searches in
4606-474: The Himalayas . Waddell reported his guide's description of a large apelike creature that left the prints, which Waddell thought were made by a bear. Waddell heard stories of bipedal, apelike creatures but wrote that "none, however, of the many Tibetans I have interrogated on this subject could ever give me an authentic case. On the most superficial investigation, it always resolved into something that somebody heard tell of." The frequency of reports increased during
4700-758: The Officers Cadet Training Unit in the Scottish seaside town of Dunbar , and was commissioned as an infantry officer. Thereafter he attended various intelligence courses and further training at the War Office in London, from where he requested a posting to India. Snellgrove arrived in Bombay in June 1943, and travelled cross-country to Calcutta . He was stationed at Barrackpore , some way up
4794-558: The Quadrumana, under the title of the Primates. The justice of this conclusion will be admitted: for in the first place, we must bear in mind the comparative insignificance for classification of the great development of the brain in man, and that the strongly marked differences between the skulls of man and the Quadrumana (lately insisted upon by Bischoff , Aeby , and others) apparently follow from their differently developed brains. In
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#17327719860254888-526: The Yeti at Tengboche gompa . Jackson tracked and photographed many footprints in the snow, most of which were identifiable. However, there were many large footprints which could not be identified. These flattened footprint-like indentations were attributed to erosion and subsequent widening of the original footprint by wind and particles. On 19 March 1954, the Daily Mail printed an article which described expedition teams obtaining hair specimens from what
4982-491: The Yeti was a large ape, and although he had never seen it himself his father had seen one twice, but in his second autobiography he said he had become much more sceptical about its existence. During the Daily Mail Snowman Expedition of 1954, the mountaineering leader John Angelo Jackson made the first trek from Everest to Kanchenjunga in the course of which he photographed symbolic paintings of
5076-517: The Yeti was likely enough to create three rules for American expeditions searching for it: obtain a Nepalese permit, do not harm the Yeti except in self-defense, and let the Nepalese government approve any news reporting on the animal's discovery. In 1959, actor James Stewart , while visiting India, reportedly smuggled the so-called Pangboche Hand , by concealing it in his luggage when he flew from India to London. In 1960, Sir Edmund Hillary mounted
5170-405: The alleged Yeti scalp and compared it with similar samples from the serow , blue bear and black bear . Burns concluded the sample "was probably made from the skin of an animal closely resembling the sampled specimen of Serow, but definitely not identical with it: possibly a local variety or race of the same species, or a different but closely related species." Up to the 1960s, belief in the yeti
5264-526: The animal from which the Pangboche hairs were taken. He was, however, convinced that the hairs were not from a bear or anthropoid ape , but instead from the shoulder of a coarse-haired hoofed animal. Sławomir Rawicz claimed in his book The Long Walk , published in 1956, that as he and some others were crossing the Himalayas in the winter of 1940, their path was blocked for hours by two bipedal animals that were doing seemingly nothing but shuffling around in
5358-453: The apes, Cercopithecoidea and Aegyptopithecus emerged within the Old World monkeys. The primates called "apes" today became known to Europeans after the 18th century. As zoological knowledge developed, it became clear that taillessness occurred in a number of different and otherwise distantly related species . Sir Wilfrid Le Gros Clark was one of those primatologists who developed the idea that there were trends in primate evolution and that
5452-519: The best evidence of Yeti's existence, while others contend the prints are those of a mundane creature that have been distorted by the melting snow. Jeffrey Meldrum examined a reconstructed form of the print in 2008, noting that one of the large toes was the result of Macrodactyly . In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reported seeing large footprints while scaling Mount Everest. Hillary would later discount Yeti reports as unreliable. In his first autobiography Tenzing said that he believed
5546-523: The book, Howard-Bury includes an account of crossing the Lhagpa La at 21,000 ft (6,400 m) where he found footprints that he believed "were probably caused by a large 'loping' grey wolf, which in the soft snow formed double tracks rather like those of a bare-footed man". He adds that his Sherpa guides "at once volunteered that the tracks must be that of 'The Wild Man of the Snows', to which they gave
5640-554: The descendant species, because humans were excluded from being among the apes. Traditionally, the English-language vernacular name "apes" does not include humans, but phylogenetically, humans ( Homo ) form part of the family Hominidae within Hominoidea. Thus, there are at least three common, or traditional, uses of the term "ape": non-specialists may not distinguish between "monkeys" and "apes", that is, they may use
5734-470: The dorsal position of the scapula ; broader ribcages that are flatter front-to-back; and a shorter, less mobile spine, with greatly reduced caudal (tail) vertebrae—resulting in complete loss of the tail in extant hominoid species. These are anatomical adaptations, first, to vertical hanging and swinging locomotion ( brachiation ) and, later, to developing balance in a bipedal pose. Note there are primates in other families that also lack tails, and at least one,
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#17327719860255828-467: The early 20th century when Westerners began making determined attempts to scale the many mountains in the area and occasionally reported seeing odd creatures or strange tracks. In 1925, N. A. Tombazi , a photographer and member of the Royal Geographical Society, writes that he saw a creature at about 15,000 ft (4,600 m) near Zemu Glacier . Tombazi later wrote that he observed the creature from about 200 to 300 yd (180 to 270 m), for about
5922-704: The exams had been held since the start of the war, and the last time they were ever held. Although he passed the exams, he was not able to take up an appointment in India. Having already begun to study Tibetan, he resolved to find a university where he could further his studies. However, as no university offered courses in Tibetan at that time he was convinced by Sir Harold Bailey that a sound knowledge of Sanskrit and Pali would be beneficial, so he gained entry to Queens' College, Cambridge in October 1946. While at Cambridge, he converted to Roman Catholicism, in part through
6016-410: The extant members of the order could be arranged in an "ascending series", leading from "monkeys" to "apes" to humans. Within this tradition "ape" came to refer to all members of the superfamily Hominoidea except humans. As such, this use of "apes" represented a paraphyletic grouping, meaning that, even though all species of apes were descended from a common ancestor, this grouping did not include all
6110-501: The field, plus continual comparisons of anatomy and DNA sequences — has changed the understanding of relationships between hominoids. There has been a gradual demotion of humans from being 'special' in the taxonomy to being one branch among many. This recent turmoil (of history) illustrates the growing influence on all taxonomy of cladistics , the science of classifying living things strictly according to their lines of descent. Today, there are eight extant genera of hominoids. They are
6204-540: The four genera in the family Hominidae, namely Homo , Pan , Gorilla , and Pongo ; plus four genera in the family Hylobatidae (gibbons): Hylobates , Hoolock , Nomascus and Symphalangus . (The two subspecies of hoolock gibbons were recently moved from the genus Bunopithecus to the new genus Hoolock and re-ranked as species; a third species was described in January 2017). In 1758, Carl Linnaeus , relying on second- or third-hand accounts, placed
6298-409: The gene pool, and given the proposed size of the Yeti, it is hard to imagine that they have been so elusive if they are real. A well publicised expedition to Bhutan initially reported that a hair sample had been obtained, which by DNA analysis by Professor Bryan Sykes could not be matched to any known animal. Analysis completed after the media release, however, clearly showed the samples were from
6392-497: The gibbons and orang-utan ... the gorilla and chimpanzee ... and humans". Modern biologists and primatologists refer to apes that are not human as "non-human" apes. Scientists broadly, other than paleoanthropologists, may use the term " hominin " to identify the human clade , replacing the term " hominid ". See terminology of primate names . See below, History of hominoid taxonomy , for a discussion of changes in scientific classification and terminology regarding hominoids. Although
6486-433: The great toe set back to one side, a first toe, also large, and three little toes closely bunched together." Peter Byrne reported finding a yeti footprint in 1948, in northern Sikkim , India near the Zemu Glacier , while on holiday from a Royal Air Force assignment in India. Western interest in the Yeti peaked dramatically in the 1950s. While attempting to scale Mount Everest in 1951, Eric Shipton took photographs of
6580-428: The hairs and comparing them with hairs from known animals such as bears and orangutans. Jones concluded that the hairs were not actually from a scalp. He contended that while some animals do have a ridge of hair extending from the pate to the back, no animals have a ridge (as in the Pangboche scalp) running from the base of the forehead across the pate and ending at the nape of the neck. Jones was unable to pinpoint exactly
6674-470: The hominoid fossil record is still incomplete and fragmentary, there is now enough evidence to provide an outline of the evolutionary history of humans . Previously, the divergence between humans and other extant hominoids was thought to have occurred 15 to 20 million years ago, and several species of that time period, such as Ramapithecus , were once thought to be hominins and possible ancestors of humans. But, later fossil finds indicated that Ramapithecus
6768-535: The influence of his friend Bede Griffiths . In 1950, after having completed his studies at Cambridge, he was invited to teach a course in elementary Tibetan at the School of Oriental and African Studies University of London . He was Professor of Tibetan at SOAS until his retirement in 1982. Snellgrove's research subsequent to his retirement was focused increasingly upon the art history of South East Asia . He died on 25 March 2016 in Pinerolo, Italy. Snellgrove
6862-445: The journal Nature , mentioned the Yeti as an example of folk belief deserving further study, writing, "The discovery that Homo floresiensis survived until so very recently, in geological terms, makes it more likely that stories of other mythical, human-like creatures such as Yetis are founded on grains of truth." In early December 2007, American television presenter Joshua Gates and his team ( Destination Truth ) reported finding
6956-679: The middle Miocene; first in the common ancestors of Hominidae, and later in the common ancestor of Hylobatidae. It has been hypothesized that in both incidents it was a mutation that occurred in apes living in Europe when the climate was getting colder, leading to starvation during winter. The mutation changed the biochemistry of the apes and made it easier to accumulate fat, which allowed the animals to survive longer periods of starvation. When they migrated to Asia and Africa, this genetic trait remained. David Snellgrove David Llewellyn Snellgrove , FBA (29 June 1920 – 25 March 2016)
7050-497: The name 'metoh-kangmi ' ". "Metoh" translates as "man-bear" and "kang-mi" translates as "snowman". Confusion exists between Howard-Bury's recitation of the term "metoh-kangmi" and the term used in Bill Tilman 's book Mount Everest, 1938 where Tilman had used the words "metch", which does not exist in the Tibetan language , and "kangmi" when relating the coining of the term "Abominable Snowman". Further evidence of "metch" being
7144-417: The orangutan Simia satyrus ("satyr monkey"). He placed the three genera Homo , Simia and Lemur in the order of Primates. The troglodytes name was used for the chimpanzee by Blumenbach in 1775, but moved to the genus Simia . The orangutan was moved to the genus Pongo in 1799 by Lacépède . Linnaeus's inclusion of humans in the primates with monkeys and apes was troubling for people who denied
7238-454: The origin of the Yeti to a combination of factors, including Sherpa folklore and misidentified fauna such as bear or yak . The Yeti is commonly compared to Bigfoot of North America, as the two subjects often have similar physical descriptions. The Yeti is often described as being a large, bipedal ape-like creature that is covered with brown, grey, or white hair, and it is sometimes depicted as having large, sharp teeth . The word Yeti
7332-705: The primates be divided into the Quadrumana (four-handed, i.e. apes and monkeys) and Bimana (two-handed, i.e. humans). This distinction was taken up by other naturalists, most notably Georges Cuvier . Some elevated the distinction to the level of order . However, the many affinities between humans and other primates – and especially the "great apes" – made it clear that the distinction made no scientific sense. In his 1871 book The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex , Charles Darwin wrote: The greater number of naturalists who have taken into consideration
7426-435: The results of his twelve-year linguistic study, postulating that the word "Yeti" is a corruption of the word "meti", a regional dialect term for a "bear". Nebuka claims that ethnic Tibetans fear and worship the bear as a supernatural being. Nebuka's claims were subject to almost immediate criticism, and he was accused of linguistic carelessness. Dr. Raj Kumar Pandey, who has researched both Yetis and mountain languages, said "it
7520-464: The second place, we must remember that nearly all the other and more important differences between man and the Quadrumana are manifestly adaptive in their nature, and relate chiefly to the erect position of man; such as the structure of his hand, foot, and pelvis, the curvature of his spine, and the position of his head. The lesser apes are the gibbon family, Hylobatidae, of sixteen species; all are native to Asia. Their major differentiating characteristic
7614-481: The snow of a hind paw coming over the front paw that appears to have a hallux, especially when the bear is going slightly uphill so the hind pawprint extends the overprint backward, makes a hominid-appearing track, both in that it is elongated like a human foot, but with a "thumb", and in that a four-footed animal's gait now appears bipedal. This "yeti discovery", in the words of National Geographic Magazine editor Bill Garrett, "[by] on-site research sweeps away much of
7708-534: The snow. Beginning in 1957, the Texas oil businessman and adventurer Tom Slick led an expedition to the Nepal Himalayas to investigate Yeti reports, with the anthropologist prof. Carleton S. Coon as one of its members. In 1959, supposed Yeti feces were collected by one of Slick's expeditions; fecal analysis found a parasite which could not be classified. The United States government thought that finding
7802-429: The term " monkey " had been introduced into English, "ape" was specialized to refer to a tailless (therefore exceptionally human-like) primate. Thus, the term "ape" obtained two different meanings, as shown in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica entry: it could be used as a synonym for "monkey" and it could denote the tailless human-like primate in particular. Some, or recently all, hominoids are also called "apes", but
7896-552: The term is used broadly and has several different senses within both popular and scientific settings. "Ape" has been used as a synonym for "monkey" or for naming any primate with a human-like appearance, particularly those without a tail. Biologists have traditionally used the term "ape" to mean a member of the superfamily Hominoidea other than humans, but more recently to mean all members of Hominoidea. So "ape"—not to be confused with "great ape"—now becomes another word for hominoid including humans. The taxonomic term hominoid
7990-460: The two terms interchangeably; or they may use "ape" for any tailless monkey or non-human hominoid; or they may use the term "ape" to just mean the non-human hominoids. Modern taxonomy aims for the use of monophyletic groups for taxonomic classification; Some literature may now use the common name "ape" to mean all members of the superfamily Hominoidea, including humans. For example, in his 2005 book, Benton wrote "The apes, Hominoidea, today include
8084-571: The west of the Himalayas, and one from Bhutan . These samples were compared with those in GenBank , the international repository of gene sequences, and matched a sample from an ancient polar bear jawbone found in Svalbard, Norway that dates back to between 40,000 and 120,000 years ago. The result suggests that, barring hoaxes of planted samples or contamination, bears in these regions may have been taken to be yeti. Professor of evolutionary genetics at
8178-470: The whole structure of man, including his mental faculties, have followed Blumenbach and Cuvier, and have placed man in a separate Order, under the title of the Bimana, and therefore on an equality with the orders of the Quadrumana, Carnivora, etc. Recently many of our best naturalists have recurred to the view first propounded by Linnaeus, so remarkable for his sagacity, and have placed man in the same Order with
8272-445: The whole world a general difference between men and simians from the principles of Natural History. I certainly know of none. If only someone might tell me one! If I called man a simian or vice versa I would bring together all the theologians against me. Perhaps I ought to, in accordance with the law of Natural History. Accordingly, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in the first edition of his Manual of Natural History (1779), proposed that
8366-583: Was a British Tibetologist noted for his pioneering work on Buddhism in Tibet as well as his many travelogues. Snellgrove was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire , and educated at Christ's Hospital near Horsham in West Sussex . He went on to study German and French at Southampton University . In 1941 he was called up to do his military service as a member of the Royal Engineers . He attended
8460-456: Was alleged to be a Yeti scalp found in the Pangboche monastery. The hairs were black to dark brown in colour in dim light, and fox red in sunlight. The hair was analysed by Professor Frederic Wood Jones , an expert in human and comparative anatomy. During the study, the hairs were bleached, cut into sections and analysed microscopically. The research consisted of taking microphotographs of
8554-552: Was depicted as an ape-like creature who carries a large stone as a weapon and makes a whistling swoosh sound. Yeti was adopted into Tibetan Buddhism , where it is considered a nonhuman animal ( tiragyoni ) that is nonetheless human enough to sometimes be able to follow Dharma . Several stories feature Yetis becoming helpers and disciples to religious figures. In Tibet, images of Yetis are paraded and occasionally worshipped as guardians against evil spirits. However, because Yetis sometimes act as enforcers of Dharma, hearing or seeing one
8648-414: Was more closely related to the orangutan; and new biochemical evidence indicates that the last common ancestor of humans and non-hominins (that is, the chimpanzees) occurred between 5 and 10 million years ago, and probably nearer the lower end of that range (more recent); see Chimpanzee–human last common ancestor (CHLCA). Genetic analysis combined with fossil evidence indicates that hominoids diverged from
8742-487: Was relatively common in Bhutan and in 1966 a Bhutanese stamp was made to honour the creature. However, in the 21st century, belief in the being has declined. In 1970, British mountaineer Don Whillans claimed to have witnessed a creature when scaling Annapurna . He reported that he once saw it moving on all fours. In 1983, Himalayan conservationist Daniel C. Taylor and Himalayan natural historian Robert L. Fleming Jr. led
8836-474: Was simply an attempt by local officials to drum up publicity. A yeti was reportedly captured in Russia in December 2011. Initially the story claimed that a hunter reported having seen a bear-like creature trying to kill one of his sheep but, after he fired his gun, the creature ran into a forest on two legs. The story then claimed that border patrol soldiers captured a hairy two-legged female creature similar to
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