Myth Busters :Cryptid DNA Analysis

Chanel Ligon Mentor : Dr. Todd R. Disotell

NYU University Anthropology – Bio Informatics

Infamous Yeti aka Abominable Snowman

Bigfoot! Aka Sasquatch

Do you believe?

All the Hype

  People around the globe claim that these legends are said to be elusive and shy , and seem to always avoid human contact.

  About 450-500 sightings are reported each year in America and 150-200 in Canada.

  Flesh , blood , hair , and tissue samples are found and claim to belong to Cryptids and these sources can provide DNA which in turn will provide conclusive proof of the actual identity of these unknown creatures.

Todd Disotell

  Todd Disotell is a professor at NYU who has a PhD in Anthropology. He examines potential DNA samples of the Yeti and Bigfoot in order to debunk these legends and myths.

Cryptid DNA Analysis

  Cryptids are animals that might possible exist in nature but who existence has not yet been accepted by modern science.

  Extracting DNA from samples found all over the world can make an exact match to a species or possibly new species or can find a close relative of the unknown species.

  Mitochondrial DNA is the most accurate for identifying a species.

Procedures

  The steps taken to identify a species is first you amplify the DNA found in the tissue, blood , hair or flesh of the unidentified species.

  The amplification of the DNA sequence makes billions of copies.

  Then you sequence the DNA , by separating the strands (A from T , C from G)

  Scientist later determine the exact sequence and compare it to a database of all known living species

Problems Encountered

  A major problem encountered when taking the DNA of a Northern Ontario “Sasquatch” was that there was no DNA found in the tissue, flesh , blood and hair of the unknown species.

  Either the DNA was destroyed by weather or natural organisms or the samples were not at all biological samples ; which is a reason why the Sasquatch may just be in peoples imagination.

Programming

  We used Python script (which is a high level programming language) to compare the DNA sequence of bigfoot (or so what someone thought was bigfoot) to the DNA sequence of a chimp.

  We created a program that took the DNA sequence of the bigfoot and matched them up to the chimpanzee's DNA sequence to see how similar they were.

Kentucky Bigfoot

  This plate was placed outside in Kentucky , as a trap for “Bigfoot”

  They did some Mitochondrial DNA testing on it so they could identify exactly what it was.

Results

They did some DNA analysis and found that (using programming similar to the python program) that the “Bigfoot” was not actually Bigfoot but actually an :

A German !

Debunking

  Disotell has done many of these debunking of Sasquatches , Big foot's , Yeti's and Abominable Snowmen and has yet to find evidence using mitochondrial DNA which is a key to accuracy.

  So called DNA evidence given to Disotell to analyze can end up merely being evidence of a bear, dog , or in one case some German dude.

Importance To Scientific Community

  Using mitochondrial DNA in order to find identities of unknown species is important because in the future it may actual identify reasonable new species that we can add to the world's scientific database of all known living species.

  Debunking such legends can also be beneficial to the scientific community because it can diminish time and money spent on solving so called mythical creatures that can be spent on actual species.

References :

  Mentor: Dr. Todd Disotell

  Monster Talk Episode #001- Bigfoot DNA

  Holloway , Marguerite (2007). Scientific American : Bigfoot Anatomy.

Acknowledgements

  Dr Todd Disotell

  Co-Mentor : Christina Bergey

  HCS Staff

  Dr. Sat Bhattacharya

  NYU Anthropology Department

AND MY AUDIENCE … YOU!

THANKS!

Any Questions?