Almas

[Ceratodromeus]

Overview
Almas is a singular word in Mongolian; the properly formed Turkic plural would be 'almaslar'.As is typical of similar legendary creatures throughout Central Asia, Russia, Pakistan and the Caucasus, the Almas is generally considered to be more akin to "wild people" in appearance and habits than to apes (in contrast to the Yeti of the Himalayas).

Almases are typically described as human-like bipedal animals, between five and six and a half feet tall, their bodies covered with reddish-brown hair, with anthropomorphic facial features including a pronounced browridge, flat nose, and a weak chin. Many cryptozoologists believe there is a similarity between these descriptions and modern reconstructions of how Neanderthals might have appeared

Speculation that Almases may be something other than legendary creatures is based on purported eyewitness accounts, alleged footprint finds, and interpretations of long-standing native traditions that have been anthropologically collected

Zana
Perhaps the story that vaulted cryptozoological itnerests in the almas comes the story of Zana, an alleged Almas that was held captive and fathered a 'hybrid', that was shown later to in fact not be such. Regardless of the authenticity, it is an interesting story for sure.

A wildwoman named Zana is said to have lived in the isolated mountain village of T'khina fifty miles from Sukhumi in Abkhazia in the Caucasus; some have speculated she may have been an Almas, but the evidence indicates that she was a human.

Captured in the mountains in 1850, she was at first violent towards her captors but soon became domesticated and assisted with simple household chores. Zana is said to have had sexual relations with a man of the village named Edgi Genaba, and gave birth to a number of children of apparently normal human appearance. Several of these children, however, died in infancy.

The father, meanwhile, gave away four of the surviving children to local families. The two boys, Dzhanda and Khwit Genaba (born 1878 and 1884), and the two girls, Kodzhanar and Gamasa Genaba (born 1880 and 1882), were assimilated into normal society, married, and had families of their own. Zana herself died in 1890. The skull of Khwit (also spelled Kvit) is still extant, and was examined by Dr Grover Krantz in the early 1990s. He pronounced it to be entirely modern, with no Neanderthal features at all. Another account by Russian anthropologist M.A.Kolodieva described the skull as significantly different from the normal males from Abkhazia: the skull "approaches closest the Neolithic Vovnigi II skulls of the fossil series".


In the 2013 Channel 4 documentary, Bigfoot Files, Professor Bryan Sykes of the University of Oxford showed that Zana's DNA was 100% Sub-Saharan African in origin and she could have been a slave brought to Abkhazia by the Ottoman Empire Sykes however raised questions as to whether Zana could have been from a population of Africans who left the continent tens of thousands of years earlier as her son, Khwit's skull had some unique and archaic characteristics. It should be noted that Dr. Sykes only looked at the mtDNA, that is only the DNA from the maternal side. He did not look at the _nuDNA from her paternal linage so the often stated claim that Zana was 100% Sub-Saharan African is an inaccurate conclusion because the DNA tests were limited.


In 2015, Sykes reported that he had undertaken DNA tests on saliva samples of six of Zana's living relatives and a tooth of her deceased son Khwit and concluded that Zana was 100% African but not of any known group, refuting the theory that she was a runaway Ottoman slave. Rather, he believes her ancestors left Africa approximately 100,000 years ago and lived in the remote Caucasus for many generations.



Another case is said to date from around 1941, shortly after the German invasion of the USSR. A "wild man" was captured somewhere in the Caucasus by a detachment of the Red Army. He appeared human, but was covered in fine, dark hair. Interrogation revealed his apparent inability (or unwillingness) to speak, and the unfortunate creature is said to have been shot as a German spy. There are various versions of this legend in the cryptozoological literature and hard proof is absent.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almas_(cryptozoology)

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The story of ‘Zana’, wild woman, has been solved through DNA analysis (UPDATE)
"There is a flurry of interest suddenly in the Zana story as The Daily Mail has printed a new piece hinting that Sykes new book will claim that Zana, the mysterious wild woman captured in Russia in the late 1800s, was perhaps a yeti. The piece is horribly written and looks like a teaser:

Professor Bryan Sykes of the University of Oxford claims a towering woman named Zana who lived in 19th Century Russia – and appeared to be ‘half human, half ape’ – could have been the fabled yeti.

I don’t think it actually DOES say that and I would be very surprised if it did since she was most certainly human. The rest of the article tells the story of Zana again (same as in 2013) so this simply looks like a way to keep a buzz about Sykes new book.

There looks to be nothing new here but media hype.

Here is the news of what Dr. Bryan Sykes found after studying DNA samples of supposed Bigfoot-like creatures in Russia.

Was Russian ‘Bigfoot’ actually an African slave?

Bryan Sykes, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, has carried out DNA tests on saliva samples taken from descendants of Zana – a so-called ‘wild woman’ captured in the late 19th century in southern Russia, who local people believe was an ‘Almasty’.

Professor Sykes’ research (part of a worldwide analysis of alleged Bigfoot samples), has yielded a remarkable result: that Zana’s ancestry was 100% Sub-Saharan African and that she was most probably a slave brought to the region by the ruling Ottomans.

To answer the riddle and establish what species she belonged to, Professor Sykes has tested samples from six of Zana’s living descendants. He has also recovered DNA from a tooth taken from the skull of one of her sons, Khwit. Such work is highly specialized and Sykes was the first geneticist ever to extract DNA from ancient bone.

But the big surprise in Sykes’ results was that Zana’s DNA is not Caucasian at all, but African. Khwit’s tooth sample confirms her maternal African ancestry and the saliva tests on the six living descendants show that they all contain African DNA in the right proportions for Zana to have been genetically 100% sub-Saharan African.

The tale of Zana and her son, Khwit, have been staples in the mystery hominid stories of Russia where their version of “Bigfoot” is called the Almas or Almasty. It was suspected that Zana was not human but possibly a relict hominid, such as a Neanderthal. Previous study of Khwit DNA showed that he was all human. This more specific test was able to show that Zana was not of local origin but she was human. Her exoticness is likely what prompted the stories that morphed into her being non-human.



Now, many will argue that this does not preclude the existence of relict hominoids (hominids) that could be the Almasty. True, it does not. They also argued that Sykes finding of bear DNA did not preclude the existence of the Yeti in the Himalayas or that the unmysterious results of DNA samples from North America does not mean there is no Sasquatch/Bigfoot. But cryptozoologists were excited that this would finally be the study that gave them proof. Sykes’ response is that is gives them ANSWERS. When you take all the scientific data all together, it DOES NOT point to unknown primates still living in remote areas of the world. Is it possible? Yes. Is it probable? No. And, it’s looking less and less probable every day.
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doubtfulnews.com/2015/04/the-story-of-zana-wild-woman-has-been-solved-through-dna-analysis/

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Resources for research

• esoterx.com/2013/01/26/the-almas-of-the-atlai-our-cousins-the-mongolian-monstrosities/
  
• esoterx.com/2013/01/26/the-almas-of-the-atlai-our-cousins-the-mongolian-monstrosities/