No Bigfoot DNA Identified in Call for Hair Samples

An international search for Bigfoot and Yeti hair samples and the subsequent genetic analysis been completed and, depending on your perspective, they either found no Bigfoot DNA or they found no Bigfoot DNA … yet.

In 2012, the Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project was formed, headed by Bryan Sykes, a professor of human genetics at the University of Oxford and Michel Sartori, Director of the Lausanne Museum of Zoology. They received 57 responses to their call for hair samples. After eliminating obvious false candidates like plant material and glass fibers, they picked 36 to study based on where they came from or their history. Their findings are now published in the journal Proceedings of The Royal Society B

More than half of the samples that were ultimately tested were linked to sightings of Bigfoot in the United States. The rest were allegedly from Yeti, the Almasty "wild man" from Russia and the orang pendek from Sumatra. After being able to extract the DNA from 30 samples and amplify and sequence it, the researchers identified all of the species that once owned the hairs - American black bear, dogs, cows, horses, brown bear, deer, North American porcupine, sheep, Malaysian tapir, serow, human and raccoons.

OK, no Bigfoot or Yeti in the bunch. What does this prove? Here’s Dr. Sykes’ response:

I don't think this finishes the Bigfoot myth at all. What it does do is show that there is a way for Bigfoot enthusiasts to go back out into the forest and get the real thing. That's the next logical step. We need a live Yeti.

Or at least something more than a few hairs. What would Todd Disotell, a professor of anthropology at New York University, like to see?

I would want visual or physical proof, like a body part, on top of the DNA evidence. Every mammal in the forest leaves hair and poop behind and that's what we've found. Just not the big guy himself.

Hear that, big guy?