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Rumors on the internet say that the genomic DNA of Sasquatch (also known as Bigf

ID: 70239 • Letter: R

Question

Rumors on the internet say that the genomic DNA of Sasquatch (also known as Bigfoot) has been sequenced from some hair samples collected in the wild! The data have not been released, but the rumor is that Sasquatches are a hybrid species that arose about 15,000 years ago from hybridization between modern Homo sapiens and a now-extinct great ape. If this DNA evidence proves to be accurate and reproducible - not a consequence of error or contamination – we can assume that Sasquatches are fertile and have propagated themselves in the New World for hundreds of generations. Given that our closest living relatives (Chimpanzees and Bonobos) and other great apes all have large chromosomal rearrangements relative to humans, it seems unlikely that “Humanzees” or “Humobos” (if such F1 hybrids ever existed) would be fertile. Please describe a plausible scenario that explains how Sasquatches originated from a human ancestor and propagated themselves in the New World, thus overcoming the meiotic block to gamete production caused by mismatched chromosomes.

Explanation / Answer

The whole nuclear genomes from Sasquatch samples showed that the mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA) is identical to modern Homo sapiens, but the nuclear DNA isolated is a novel, but it is related to homo sapiens (the nuclear DNA was a structural mosaic and found to be containing both human DNA along with novel non human DNA). The mtDNA will be inherited from mother alone, so the presence of mtDNA which is similar to Homo sapiens gives an idea that these Sasquatch were the hybrids produced from the cross between hominin species and female homo sapience.

We can say by observing the paternal lineage that these hominin who evolved distantly from humans and apes, but one point they interbred with humans. But the hybrids of modern Homo sapiens and unknown primate species are not plausible, if these offspring have born also, they can’t be fertile. Humans can’t breed with even closest living creatures.

These hybrids will be sterile; because they have failed pairing of chromosome (it is possible to have imbalanced segregation of several paired translocation along with the possibility of inversion and fusion of chromosomes). If these hybrids are produced with amphidiploid condition (where it will have all the chromosomes of both human and non human), then they can produce the viable gametes through the pairing of homologous chromosomes. But this is unlikely to happen. If they would have produced also, they might have gone extinct.