Researchers from the University of Oxford in England have found DNA evidence that they say prove Bigfoot never existed.
For years, the debate whether Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, was, in fact, real, fascinated the scientific community. According some scientists, Bigfoot was not real because a creature of that size would have been discovered in the wild quickly. Additionally, Bigfoot sightings were proven to be hoaxes many times. In 2008, two men from Georgia announced that they filmed Bigfoot. Genetic analysis of the samples provided by the men turned out that the material came from a frozen gorilla suit and an opossum.
To shed light to this topic, University of Oxford geneticist Bryan Sykes worked with psychologist Rhettman Mullis to analyze hair samples that were claimed to belong to Bigfoot. Working under the assumption that Bigfoot existed, the two assessed a total of 57 hair samples. They hypothesized that none of the hair samples should match any existing animal, LiveScience reported.
After filtering the hair down to 36 of the closest candidates, the team found that all of the hair samples came from deer, coyotes, raccoons, cows, and even humans.
However, there were two samples whose DNA resembled the DNA sequence of a Paleolithic polar bear. One of the samples was taken from an animal killed by a hunter 40 years ago. The hunter claimed that that particular bear was way more aggressive than the others. The other sample was taken from an area believed to be the thriving grounds of "migyhur", a Bhutanese term for Yeti.
The researchers explained that these two samples might be taken from unrecognized species of bear or a hybrid of known species.
Findings of this research were published in the July 1 issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
