Evolutionary history of enigmatic bears in the Tibetan Plateau–Himalaya region and the identity of the yeti
Although anecdotally associated with local bears ( Ursus arctos and U. thibetanus ), the exact identity of ‘hominid’-like creatures important to folklore and mythology in the Tibetan Plateau–Himalaya region is still surrounded by mystery. Recently, two purported yeti samples from the Himalayas showe...
Published in: | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rspb.2017.1804 2024-06-02T08:15:37+00:00 Evolutionary history of enigmatic bears in the Tibetan Plateau–Himalaya region and the identity of the yeti Lan, Tianying Gill, Stephanie Bellemain, Eva Bischof, Richard Nawaz, Muhammad Ali Lindqvist, Charlotte Division of Environmental Biology 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1804 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2017.1804 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2017.1804 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 284, issue 1868, page 20171804 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 journal-article 2017 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1804 2024-05-07T14:16:04Z Although anecdotally associated with local bears ( Ursus arctos and U. thibetanus ), the exact identity of ‘hominid’-like creatures important to folklore and mythology in the Tibetan Plateau–Himalaya region is still surrounded by mystery. Recently, two purported yeti samples from the Himalayas showed genetic affinity with an ancient polar bear, suggesting they may be from previously unrecognized, possibly hybrid, bear species, but this preliminary finding has been under question. We conducted a comprehensive genetic survey of field-collected and museum specimens to explore their identity and ultimately infer the evolutionary history of bears in the region. Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA sequences determined clade affinities of the purported yeti samples in this study, strongly supporting the biological basis of the yeti legend to be local, extant bears. Complete mitochondrial genomes were assembled for Himalayan brown bear ( U. a. isabellinus ) and black bear ( U. t. laniger ) for the first time. Our results demonstrate that the Himalayan brown bear is one of the first-branching clades within the brown bear lineage, while Tibetan brown bears diverged much later. The estimated times of divergence of the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan bear lineages overlap with Middle to Late Pleistocene glaciation events, suggesting that extant bears in the region are likely descendants of populations that survived in local refugia during the Pleistocene glaciations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ursus arctos The Royal Society Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284 1868 20171804 |
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The Royal Society |
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language |
English |
description |
Although anecdotally associated with local bears ( Ursus arctos and U. thibetanus ), the exact identity of ‘hominid’-like creatures important to folklore and mythology in the Tibetan Plateau–Himalaya region is still surrounded by mystery. Recently, two purported yeti samples from the Himalayas showed genetic affinity with an ancient polar bear, suggesting they may be from previously unrecognized, possibly hybrid, bear species, but this preliminary finding has been under question. We conducted a comprehensive genetic survey of field-collected and museum specimens to explore their identity and ultimately infer the evolutionary history of bears in the region. Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA sequences determined clade affinities of the purported yeti samples in this study, strongly supporting the biological basis of the yeti legend to be local, extant bears. Complete mitochondrial genomes were assembled for Himalayan brown bear ( U. a. isabellinus ) and black bear ( U. t. laniger ) for the first time. Our results demonstrate that the Himalayan brown bear is one of the first-branching clades within the brown bear lineage, while Tibetan brown bears diverged much later. The estimated times of divergence of the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan bear lineages overlap with Middle to Late Pleistocene glaciation events, suggesting that extant bears in the region are likely descendants of populations that survived in local refugia during the Pleistocene glaciations. |
author2 |
Division of Environmental Biology |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lan, Tianying Gill, Stephanie Bellemain, Eva Bischof, Richard Nawaz, Muhammad Ali Lindqvist, Charlotte |
spellingShingle |
Lan, Tianying Gill, Stephanie Bellemain, Eva Bischof, Richard Nawaz, Muhammad Ali Lindqvist, Charlotte Evolutionary history of enigmatic bears in the Tibetan Plateau–Himalaya region and the identity of the yeti |
author_facet |
Lan, Tianying Gill, Stephanie Bellemain, Eva Bischof, Richard Nawaz, Muhammad Ali Lindqvist, Charlotte |
author_sort |
Lan, Tianying |
title |
Evolutionary history of enigmatic bears in the Tibetan Plateau–Himalaya region and the identity of the yeti |
title_short |
Evolutionary history of enigmatic bears in the Tibetan Plateau–Himalaya region and the identity of the yeti |
title_full |
Evolutionary history of enigmatic bears in the Tibetan Plateau–Himalaya region and the identity of the yeti |
title_fullStr |
Evolutionary history of enigmatic bears in the Tibetan Plateau–Himalaya region and the identity of the yeti |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evolutionary history of enigmatic bears in the Tibetan Plateau–Himalaya region and the identity of the yeti |
title_sort |
evolutionary history of enigmatic bears in the tibetan plateau–himalaya region and the identity of the yeti |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1804 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2017.1804 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2017.1804 |
genre |
Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Ursus arctos |
op_source |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 284, issue 1868, page 20171804 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1804 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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284 |
container_issue |
1868 |
container_start_page |
20171804 |
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1800739846771179520 |