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"LONDON \u2014 DNA testing is taking a bite out of the Bigfoot legend. After scientists analyzed more than 30 hair samples reportedly left behind by Bigfoot and similar mythical beasts like the Himalayan Yeti, they found all of them came from more mundane creatures like bears, wolves, cows and raccoons.\nIn 2012, researchers at Oxford University and the Lausanne Museum of Zoology issued an open call asking museums, scientists and Bigfoot aficionados to share any samples they thought were from the legendary ape-like creatures.\nSee also: 12 Mysterious Google Maps Sightings\n\"I thought there was about a 5% chance of finding a sample from a Neanderthal or (a Yeti),\" said Bryan Sykes of Oxford University, who led the research, the first peer-reviewed study of Bigfoot, Yeti and other \"anomalous primates.\" The study was published online Wednesday in the journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society B.\nSykes and colleagues tested 36 hair samples from Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Russia and the U.S. using DNA sequencing and all of them matched DNA from known animals. Most were from bears, but there were also hairs from a Malaysian tapir, horses, porcupine, deer, sheep, and a human.\n\nIn this undated photo made available by Britain's Channel 4 television of Oxford University genetics professor Bryan Sykes posing with a prepared DNA sample taken from hair from a Himalayan animal. Image: Channel 4/Associated PressWhile Sykes said they didn't find any proof of Bigfoot-related creatures, he acknowledged their paper doesn't prove they don't exist.\n\"The fact that none of these samples turned out to be (a Yeti) doesn't mean the next one won't,\" he said. The scientists did find two samples from ancient polar bears in the Himalayas, who are not known to live there. That suggests there could be a new or hybrid bear species out there, Sykes said.\nOthers said proving that Bigfoot is real requires significantly more than a mere hair sample.\n\"I would want visual or physical proof, like a body part, on top of the DNA evidence,\" said Todd Disotell, a professor of anthropology at New York University. He warned Bigfoot enthusiasts not to make assumptions when they find weird things in the forest. \"Every mammal in the forest leaves hair and poop behind and that's what we've found,\" he said. \"Just not the big guy himself.\"\nSome experts said that if Bigfoot existed, there would be a lot more to find than just a few errant hairs.\n\"Those who believe in the Yeti, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster need basic instruction in sex,\" said Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University, in an email. \"Each Yeti has two parents, four grandparents and so on,\" he said. \"There should have been herds of (Yetis),\" he wrote. \"Where were they hiding?\"\nHistory's notable Yeti/Bigfoot 'sightings'\n1961\nThis picture was brought back from the expedition to Mount Everest and shows, supposedly, the footprints of the Abominable Snowman or Yeti \n\nImage: Popperfoto/Getty Images1976\nA preserved skull said to be that of a yeti or abominable snowman on display at Pangboche monastery, near Mount Everest.\n\nImage: Ernst Haas/Ernst Haas/Getty Images\nImage: Ernst Haas/Ernst Haas/Getty Images1980\nA footprint measuring 17 3/4 inches long and 7 1/2 inches wide was discovered on Aug. 26, 1980 at a residence in the Conemaugh Twp. area in Johnstown. A very well defined print was left behind, if indeed it was bigfoot, plus a left print was found eight feet away in a more wooded area. Along with the footprints, reports of strange noises and a very unusual but strong odor went with the account of the episode. \n\nImage: AP Photo/Associated Press1982\nAnthropologist Grover Krantz, of Washington State University, shows newsmen a footprint cast taken after a Sasquatch sighting last June in northern Oregon, Oct. 23, 1982, Vancouver, B.C. Krantz said that the fine detail in the cast indicates conclusive evidence that the mammoth creature exists.\n\nImage: Chuck Stoody/Associated Press1998\nJohn Bindernagel examining Sasquatch feeding signs in a pit from which hibernating ground squirrels had been dug up and eaten in 1998 in Oregon.\n\nImage: John Bindernagel / Barcroft USA /Barcoft Media via Getty Images1990s\nThis undated photo, also taken by Bindernagel, shows a 4-foot-tall nest with scale (1-foot marks on vertical scaling rod) in Olympic Peninsula, Washington.\n\nImage: John Bindernagel / Barcroft USA /Barcoft Media via Getty ImagesIn that same series of photos from Bindernagel was this photo showing three plaster casts taken from footprints suspected to have been made by a bigfoot in Vancouver, Canada.\n\nImage: John Bindernagel / Barcroft USA /Barcoft Media via Getty ImagesAdditional reporting by Mashable"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/07/02/bigfoot-dna/>