[The hair of an unknown higher primate? (1)]

The authors present the results of morphological, histochemical, and serological analyses of hairs found in the Caucasus and Tyan Shan. Two groups of signs were distinguished: (1) those characteristic of animals, i.e. huge (if judged by the "human" measure) thickness of the hairs and unproportionally large thickness of the core of a hair at some sites, and (2) signs characteristic of humans: the structure of the cuticle and cortical layer, features of pigment distribution, irregular thickness of the core at various portions of a hair, as well as histochemical and serological findings. The examined samples cannot be identified with any known mammalian hairs. There are more elements characteristic of humans than of animals in these hairs and they may belong to a higher primate.