Turns out ‘alien-like’ skeleton was not of a six-year-old girl

Back in 2003, a bizarre skeleton was discovered that was extremely small and was considered to have extraterrestrial origins. Researchers later discovered the skeleton to be of a young human girl, but now an update suggests that it wasn’t even a girl, but a fetus.

The six-inch-long Atacama skeleton, also known as Ata, was found in the Chilean desert and contained 10 pair of ribs as compared to normal human’s 12, with an elongated skull narrowed to a rigid peak, sunken and slanted eye sockets making people believe that it was some kind of alien or an ancient mummy.

However, later studies indicated that it was the remains of a six-year-old girl suffering from genetic anomalies. New update on the research written in the International Journal of Paleopathology explained that Ata was a 15-week old fetus and was a result of miscarriage, reported Metro.

Scientists finally crack the mysterious case of alien-like skeleton

The paper said that no evidence of skeletal anomalies was found. “This mummy reflects a sad loss for a mother in the Atacama Desert,’ said co-author Bernardo Arriaza.

The research suggested that the less ribs were ‘floating ribs’ and might have not began to form at this stage of the unborn child’s development. The research also said that despite its weird appearance, the fetus looked normal for its age and its elongated skull is normal for a preterm fetus, but have been affected by geological and birth processes.

Researchers conducted the study said that the previous researchers did not follow proper protocols for studying human remains and the DNA extraction techniques caused damage to Ata’s body, wrote Tech Times.

“There was no scientific rationale to undertake genomic analyses of Ata because the skeleton is normal, the identified genetic mutations are possibly coincidental, and none of them are known to be strongly associated with skeletal dysplasias. In the case of Ata, costly and time-consuming scientific testing using whole genome techniques was unnecessary and unethical,” said lead researcher Sian Halcrow.