BBC News | ASIA-PACIFIC | Cow horn crookery exposed

BBC News Online: World: Asia-Pacific

Thursday, 15 February, 2001, 16:20 GMT

Cow horn crookery exposed

Mysterious crooked horns said to belong to a new animal species in Vietnam have been found to be ordinary cow's horns that had twisted into an unusual shape.

A report in the New Scientist said that scientists had been excited over the possibility of discovering a new species when the horns were first found in 1993.

Genetic and morphological tests reveal that the horns are simply cow horns that have been carved and twisted by local people
New Scientist

Local hunters had told biologists who found the horns in local markets in Vietnam and Cambodia that they belonged to large forest animals called "linh duong" or mountain goat.

But new research by French scientists has shown that the animal - named Pseudonovibos spiralis - is a fake.

Analysis found that DNA markers on the horns closely matched the local domestic cow, Bos taurus.

Mountain goat
Close examination of the unusual horns showed they could not have been formed naturally, but had probably been heated, squeezed and carved into their unusual shape.

Researcher Alexandre Hassanin and his colleagues said it was an elaborate hoax based on the folk industry's 80-year-old fraud concerning a mythical beast.

According to tradition, the horns contain an antidote for snake bites.

Related to this story:
Vietnamese 'cheated' by mediums (08 Dec 00 | Asia-Pacific)

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