![]() ![]() ![]() Photo © Zoo Hluboka / Wikimedia Commons through a CC BY-SA 4.0 license Over the decades, Yeti encounters continued to accumulate, though physical evidence has always been elusive. With this, the Western world began to believe that the Yeti could be real, and Yeti-finding expeditions were dispatched. The explorers gathered first-hand accounts from locals and translated these observations into prosaic descriptions of the creature’s shape, fur color and gait. The reports of Yeti sightings began as soon as Western explorers made headway into the Himalayas. Photo on Wikimedia Commons in the Public DomainĪ recent scientific study has shown, once and for all, that physical evidence (fur, bone and skin) purported to be from the Yeti are instead from bears, based on genetic analysis.īear species that fall within the “range” of the Yeti include Asiatic black bear and two subspecies of brown bears, the Tibetan and Himalayan. Photograph was taken at Menlung glacier on the Everest expedition by Eric Shipton in 1951. Photograph of an alleged yeti footprint found by Michael Ward. ![]() Those who claim to have seen it report a modest-sized, two-legged, hairy mountain creature with disproportionately large feet. For now, we imagine the mighty mantis instilled a little bit of awe and fear in ancient civilizations.The Yeti is a cryptozoological phenomenon popularized in the early 20 th century by British mountain explorers in the Himalayas. The researchers theorize that “the useless but astonishing praying mantids could have merited petroglyphs of their forms by being part of ancient religions, fears, or admirations." Hopefully more research will lead to a solid conclusion. Still, the reason why mantises would have been objects of interest to the point of someone taking the time to inscribe their likeness remains a mystery. Interestingly, the paper shares that the depiction appears “to have raised and opened its forelegs laterally” indicating that the artist was hoping to portray a threatening figure. The researchers also analyzed “morphological characters and compared the petroglyph to arthropods known to be distributed in this area and their behavioral characteristics,” in addition to “anthropomorphs and anthropomorphized animal images in Iran and other countries to find possible similarities.” The ‘man’ portion of ‘mantis-man’ comes from the circles that round out the mantis’ limbs-according to a paper published in the Journal of Orthoptera Research, the design on the rock “resembles a well-known ‘squatter man’ motif … found all over the world.” Scientists Want to Emulate Praying Mantis Vision.What results did the observations yield? Since the carving on the rock featured a “triangular head with big eyes and the grasping forearms are unmistakably those of a praying mantid” in addition to the “extension on its head,” the group of scientists concluded that the petroglyph featured Empusa, a genus of mantises. They also analyzed “local prehistoric six-legged creatures which its prehistoric artists could have encountered.” reports that glyphs portraying invertebrates “are rare,” which led to a collaboration between entomologists and archaeologists “to try and identify the motif.” The group studied and compared the recently discovered mantis-man with other petroglyphs from all over the world. This ‘mantis-man’ petroglyph is estimated to have been created between four and 40,000 years ago-the disparity in these figures is due to the fact that sanctions keep Iran from utilizing materials to radiocarbon date the specimens. Between 20, researchers happened upon the five-and-a-half-inch glyph that depicts what looks like a praying mantis with circles at the end of its limbs. For the time being, the researchers remain unsure as to why the creature would have been deemed important enough to record in a glyph.Īn old petroglyph was found during a survey in Sarkubeh Village in Iran, a site known for its abundant prehistoric rock carvings.Scientists have discovered a mysterious petroglyph depicting what looks like a praying mantis in a (possibly) defensive stance. ![]()
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