Scientists say museum samples that were hoped to prove the mythical Abominable Snowman’s existence have a far more mundane explanation.

So-called Yeti bone, teeth, hair and even droppings put through DNA testing come from bears and a dog.

Footprints in the snow and the folklore of remote Nepalese and Tibetan communities have promulgated the legend of the huge, hairy primate for centuries.

Exhibits brought home by western adventurers from the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau to find their way into museums and private collection have only added credence to the stories of mankind’s missing link hunting on the slopes of the planet’s highest peaks.

Today, after the “most rigorous” analysis of samples to date, those who believe in the Yeti’s existence, were dealt a bitter blow.

“Our findings strongly suggest that the biological underpinnings of the Yeti legend can be found in local bears, and our study demonstrates that genetics should be able to unravel other, similar mysteries,” said lead scientist Dr Charlotte Lindqvist, an associate professor of biological sciences in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.

British scientists Tianying Lan and Stephanie Gill, who are also based at the University of Buffalo, were part of the international team behind the study which is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B today.

The “Yeti” samples analysed by Dr Lindqvist were provided by British production company Icon Films, which featured the scientist in the 2016 Animal Planet television special “Yeti or Not”.

They included a so-called scrap of skin from a hand of a Yeti held as a monastic relic and a bone fragment found in a Tibetan cave.

The skin came from an Asian black bear, the bone from a Tibetan brown bear.

“Clearly, a big part of the Yeti legend has to do with bears,” said Dr Lindqvist today.

While the Yeti remains a myth, Dr Lindqvist’s work is uncovering vital background about the evolution of creatures that, in their own way, are almost as rare as the mythical beast.

Mitrochondrial DNY sequencing of 23 Asian bears – including the purported Yetis – showed Tibetan brown bears have a close common ancestry with brown bears found in North America and Eurasia, while the Himalayan brown bear has a distinct evolutionary line, having gone its own way in isolation during a glacial period some 650,000 years ago.

Dr Lindqvist added: “Bears in this region are either vulnerable or critically endangered from a conservation perspective, but not much is known about their past history.

“The Himalayan brown bears, for example, are highly endangered. Clarifying population structure and genetic diversity can help in estimating population sizes and crafting management strategies.”

She added: “Further genetic research on these rare and elusive animals may help illuminate the environmental history of the region, as well as bear evolutionary history worldwide and additional ‘Yeti’ samples could contribute to this work.”