modern polar bear specimen "from the Diomede Islands in the Bering Sea reported in the same paper". They maintained that they did not see any sign of damage in their sequences and commented that they had "no reason to doubt the accuracy of these two sequences any more than the other 28 presented in the paper". Multiple further analyses, including replication of the single analysis conducted by Sykes and his team, were carried out in a study conducted by Eliécer E. Gutiérrez, a researcher at the Smithsonian Institution and Ronald H. Pine, affiliated at the University of Kansas. All of these analyses found that the relevant genetic variation in brown bears makes it impossible to assign, with certainty, the Himalayan samples to either that species or to the polar bear. Because brown bears occur in the Himalayas, Gutiérrez and Pine stated that there is no reason to believe that the samples in question came from anything other than ordinary Himalayan brown bears. Personal life Sykes died on 10 December 2020. Selected works (see The Seven Daughters of Eve) (see Adam's Curse) Notes External links We're nearly all Celts under the skin, by Ian Johnston, The Scotsman. Celts descended from Spanish fishermen, study finds, The Independent, 20 September 2006. Oxford Ancestors website * Curiosity drives the gene genie to a £1m turnover, Telegraph, 15 February 2008 1947 births 2020 deaths Recent African origin of modern humans English geneticists Genetic genealogists English science writers Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford People educated at Eltham College English croquet players