DNA Tests Find No Bigfoot, Possible Yeti

If there are mysterious, hairy humanoids roaming the wilds of North America, they don't seem to be leaving any DNA behind, according to researchers who have carried out the first-ever comprehensive genetic review of hair samples supposedly from Bigfoot, the Sasquatch, or the Yeti. The alleged Bigfoot samples turned out to be from bears, horses, raccoons, and even a porcupine, but not from any rare creatures, let alone mythical ones, LiveScience reports.

But two Asian hair samples, including one from the supposed lair of a Yeti in Bhutan, suggest there may be an unknown hairy creature out there, although not a humanoid one, Vox finds. The samples were related to modern bears, but the closest DNA match was a 100,000-year-old polar bear bone found in the Arctic, meaning there may be some unknown descendant of polar bears roaming the Himalayas. One of the lead researchers, a prominent human geneticist, says that despite the failure to find any new primates, he is keeping an open mind and still believes there could be something out there, USA Today reports. "Rather than thinking 'I've disproved the Yeti and Bigfoot and it's all a load of nonsense,'" he says, "I was convinced (eyewitnesses) had seen something, more than I was when I started." (In Montana, a man who posed as Bigfoot ended up getting killed.)