Questions surrounding a tiny mummified skeleton some thought to be an alien have been answered by modern science.
The skeleton with an elongated skull and an underdeveloped jaw fits in the palm of one’s hand and was discovered in the Atacama Desert region of Chile in 2003. Researchers named it “Ata.” The skull sports slanted eye sockets and a fewer number than normal of human ribs — 10 as opposed to 12 — furthering alien conspiracy theories.
Although it’s the size of a 22-week-old fetus, previous analysis of the so-called mummified alien skeleton questioned that finding because of its "advanced bone age." Therefore, researchers concluded in 2013 that the remains were of a severely deformed 6- to 8 year-old child.
However, DNA and X-ray analysis conducted by Gary Nolan, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University, has provided new insights, which were published in the journal Genome Research.
"I learned about this through a friend who was interested in the entire area of extraterrestrial life," Nolan told CNN. "He told me about a documentary … coming out which was to feature the 'Atacama Humanoid.’”
Ata received a starring role in a documentary film titled “Sirius,” in which a UFO researcher attempted to glean its origins. The film is currently available on Netflix.
Of particular interest to Nolan were Ata’s alleged alien origins.
"That was a significant claim in and of itself. More shocking though was the picture I was provided that was part of the online publicity,” Nolan wrote to CNN. “I decided to contact the movie directors (basically on a dare ...) to tell them it was possible to do a sequencing of the specimen (if it had earthly DNA ...) to determine its origin."
Nolan’s findings were more earthly:
First of all, Ata “is shown here to have a purely earthly origin," the study’s authors said, according to Live Science.
Second, Ata suffered from numerous bone disease-associated mutations.
Third, although originally believed to be ancient and mummified, the remains are only about 40 years old.
Finally, the skeleton is, in fact, that of a fetus. The genetic mutation is what led earlier researchers to conclude it was a child.
This isn’t the first time “alien” remains have been excavated. In 1999, a 1,000-year-old Mexican cemetery yielded 13 elongated skulls. Studies later concluded their unusually shaped skulls were deliberately deformed as part of a cultural practice.
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