DNA tests have shown that hair samples claimed to have come from yetis, sasquatch and bigfoot actually came from other species currently in the area or from their ancestors.
Two Himalayan alleged “yeti” samples tested by scientists have been found to have come from an ancient bear.
This is the first systematic DNA survey of these elusive primates to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Most samples attributed to yeti/sasquatch were identified as known species living in their normal geographical range.
Dr Brian Sykes of the University of Oxford and colleagues report their findings in theProceeding of the Royal Society B.
Dr Sykes says the results end decades of ambiguity about sample identification.
In an editorial in the Royal Society, Norman MacLeod of the UK Natural History Museum says cryptozoologists, or those who seek ancient creatures thought to be extinct or to be legends such as mermaids, must now either accept these findings or show where they are in error.
Cryptozoology supporters have claimed that the scientific establishment has failed to live up to the tenets of its own philosophy by not acknowledging the evidence they have offered for the existence of large species presently unknown to science.
MacLeod says the evidence is typically anecdotal observations recounted by individuals backed up on occasion by photographic and/or sound recordings, usually of quite poor quality.
MacLeod says scientific researchers have regarded this as hopelessly ambiguous and not suitable for rigorous hypothesis testing.