Scientists: Bigfoot Still Missing

University of Oxford scientists have published--in a peer-reviewed journal--results of DNA tests for 'anomalous primates' (i.e. Bigfoot). They put out a call for people to send in hair samples and received 57. Actually, not all of the samples were hair, so after they discarded those and others from which DNA could not be extracted, they were left with 30 samples. They sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of the remaining samples and compared the sequences to those in databases. They found polar bear, horse, raccoon, porcupine, dog, and even one human. None of the results came back as not-quite-human. It wasn't a total waste of time though, because a couple of samples from the Himalayas came back as polar bear, suggesting a hybrid species of bears.

The authors conclude:

While it is important to bear in mind that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and this survey cannot refute the existence of anomalous primates, neither has it found any evidence in support. Rather than persisting in the view that they have been ‘rejected by science’, advocates in the cryptozoology community have more work to do in order to produce convincing evidence for anomalous primates and now have the means to do so.

I think that's a diplomatic way of saying put up or shut up.

Notes:
Source: Sykes, Proc. R. Soc. B 22 August 2014 vol. 281 no. 1789

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