Bigfoot and the Genetic Considerations of Hypertrichosis

The following material is from my upcoming White Paper "The Community of Legendary Primates" and is copyright (c) 2006 by Scott Marlowe. All rights are reserved.

Congenital generalized hypertrichosis (CGH) is an extremely rare genetic disorder characterized by extreme hair growth, typically on the face and upper body. The popular press has consequently dubbed the condition the "Werewolf syndrome". Individuals with this genetic “disorder” have appeared in circuses as "dog men" and "ape men" for years.

There are quite a number of documented cases of hairy feral children dating from the year 1344 -- as tables are not implemented within the cryptozoology blog, please contact the author for information on these.

Although there are a number of archetypal families, such as the Jefticheffs previously mentioned (in prior chapters of my book), the recent “discovery” of a multigenerational Mexican family with many members manifesting this disorder has provided contemporary researchers with a rare opportunity to track the gene responsible for the condition directly.

Previous indirect studies had concluded that there is an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance with CGH. Segregation analysis has shown that affected women can transmit the trait to both their male and female offspring.

The hair growth is typically more extreme in males. Affected females generally have a more irregular pattern of excessive hair growth. But, this is not always the case. As a result of these findings researchers now conclude that the condition is due to an X-linked gene of dominant pattern of inheritance.

"After isolating the genomic DNA the latest research genotyped CGH using PCR based hypervariable microsatellites. With these new technologies the investigators localized the causal gene to an interval between the Xq24-q27.1 region of the X-chromosome." (footnote omitted). So the latest research indicates that CGH is a fully penetrant X-linked dominant trait.

Normal hair growth is controlled by an intricate interplay of genetic and endocrine gland factors. Most forms of hirsutism are linked to hormone imbalances bound to locations in the body under androgen control. By contrast, hypertrichosis can include any area of the body and is caused by an acquired, or genetic, cause.

Retinoic acids and growth factors all appear to be involved in the production of hair, and science is learning more about autosomal or X-linked genes that control hair growth as research continues to study the mechanisms behind it. But the fact that other primates have substantially more hair coverage on their bodies strongly suggests that the genes responsible for hair growth have undergone some important structural or regulatory change during the evolution that resulted in modern Homo sapiens.

Thus, researchers have postulated that CGH is a manifestation of a genetic atavism, or more plainly put, the reappearance of an ancestral phenotype.

The reappearance of ancestral characteristics in individual members of our species "reminds us that the genetic and developmental information originally used in the production of such characteristics has not been lost during evolution, but lies quiescent within the genome and in the processes of embryonic development," notes Brian K. Hall, of the department of biology at the University of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In short, this particular genetic mutation evokes a natural pattern that has been suppressed in the genetic makeup of H sapiens. Just as the loss of appendages on snakes or tails in apes, this does not mean that the ability to produce these forms has been lost. The spectacle of a three-toed horse, or a whale with hind limbs, actually represents the reappearance of anatomy previously “lost” in the process of natural selection.

So, we can postulate that the hairiness of Jo Jo and the other “wolf men” and “ape men” mentioned above is due to carrying a gene that was passed to them through heredity from ancestors that may be related to apparently kindred primates.

Assuming that Zana was indeed one of these primates, as the accounts of her suggest, her descendants carry this genetic pre-disposition for hypertrichosis. Should these offspring marry someone else that carries the gene, and bear children, the condition will re-emerge in future generations of their progeny.

It would be interesting to examine the genealogy of the Jefticheff family (and that of others manifesting hypertrichosis) to ascertain if there are any hereditary links to Zana – given that Adrian Jefticheff hails from the same general locality.