Riddle of the mummy that looks like an alien
FOuND in a leather pouch in an abandoned church, this six- inch skeleton sparked fevered claims that aliens had visited Earth.
The partially- mummified corpse – discovered in 2003 in Atacama, Chile – has a long cone-like skull and just ten pairs of ribs.
It ended up in the hands of a collector in Spain who speculated it was an extra-terrestrial. But tests have now revealed the remains are actually those of a girl with dwarfism.
DNA analysis reveals her appearance can be explained by a series of genetic mutations and other bone and growth disorders.
The bones appear to be those of a child between six and eight years old. It is not known whether the skeleton – given the name Ata – reached that age, or whether she had a genetic mutation that made her bones grow in an accelerated way in the womb.
Garry Nolan, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford university School of Medicine, began tests on Ata in 2012, when a friend called saying he might have found an ‘alien’. With the help of scientists at the university of California, San Francisco it was discovered that Ata had 64 gene variants that seemed likely to be damaging.
Ten of the variations were linked to skeletal problems including ‘short stature’.
Others included problems with producing collagen – used in cartilage – and genes linked to curvature of the spine.
Dr Nolan said research on Ata could possibly help patients in the future. He added: ‘Maybe there’s a way to accelerate bone growth in people who need it, people who have bad breaks.
‘Nothing like this had been seen before. Certainly, nobody had looked into the genetics of it.’
It is now hoped that Ata will be given a proper burial. Dr Nolan said her genes are similar to those of Chilean Chilote Indians, and the remains suggest she lived no more than 40 years ago.
The researchers speculate that the skeleton’s deformities and the fact it was found near an abandoned nitrate mine in Chile, may have resulted from DNA damage caused by exposure to nitrates.