Science has just killed bigfoot.
A new study of supposed hair samples of the North American and Himalayan mythical beast-man has shown that almost all of them can be definitely identified as bear or wolf fur.
The research, which was carried out by scientists at Oxford University but also filmed for the purposes of a Channel 4 documentary shows that the hair is almost certainly not that of a unidentified humanoid species.
The evidence is presented in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal.
"On the one hand, numerous reports including eye-witness and footprint evidence, point to the existence of large unidentified primates in many regions of the world," its authors said.
"On the other, no bodies or recent fossils of such creatures have ever been authenticated"
Lead researcher Bryan Sykes genetically tested 30 samples after putting out a request for hair -- supposedly from "anomalous primates". One came from a Southeast Asian goat, two from polar bear descendants, eight from the brown bear and one from a tapir. Eighteen samples supposedly from the North American 'bigfoot' came from bears, racoons, cows, and possibly a wolf. At least one tuft came from a "hairy human".
"The techniques described here put an end to decades of ambiguity about species identification of anomalous primate samples and set a rigorous standard against which to judge any future claims," said the study.