Mother of ‘alien’ may still be alive

CHILE: It was a mysterious artefact that had baffled archaeologists for 15 years, a bizarre curio exhibited to support the theories of UFO conspirators.

The genetic conundrum was finally solved by a scientific study last week. But the ‘‘Atacama skeleton’’, which is now known to have come from a stillborn Chilean girl suffering genetic abnormalities, was also something else, something that scientists from her home country say has been forgotten: she was a human being.

What is more, they say in a sharp criticism of the researchers who investigated her, her body was probably looted, and her mother could still be alive.

The Board of the Chilean Society of Biological Anthropology said the case, which they argued involved desecration and pillaging, highlighted the ‘‘absence of ethical protocols in scientific research’’.

The Atacama skeleton was found in 2003, left beside a church in La Noria, a ghost town in the Atacama Desert. Only 15cm long and with an elongated head but the bones of a 6-year-old child, she immediately attracted the attention of Ufologists, who paid to have their photographs taken with her.

She was in UFO documentaries, where she was referred to as a humanoid. Eventually, her remains were sold to a Spanish collector, who most recently exhibited her at the Ufology World Congress in Barcelona.

During the course of her travels, however, samples were provided for United States scientists to investigate. Their findings showed she was not an alien but a human child with a huge number of genetic mutations, almost certainly stillborn, most probably after World War II.

Chilean researchers said that while the genetic mystery had been solved, crucial questions remained, such as whether sufficient ethical consideration was given to research that turned out to have involved recent human remains.

The Chilean National Monuments Council said it had begun an investigation. The Society of Biological Anthropology questioned whether such research would have occurred in the West.

‘‘A similar study using the remains of a foetus taken from a cemetery in a developed country would provoke a different reaction,’’ they wrote.

Cristina Dorador, from the University of Antofagasta, called for the Chilean government to condemn the research.

‘‘We do not know how a little girl came to be buried next to the church in the abandoned town. We do not know if she was born alive, but we do know she was treated with care and love in her last moments, being carefully covered in a white cloth and a violet ribbon before her burial in a simple grave close to once-consecrated ground,’’ Dorador said.

‘‘From the presumed timeline of her death, it is likely her mother probably is still alive. Given the amount of interest about the case in the media, it is also possible the family has been forced to relive events from 40 years ago. But what is the fate of the girl of La Noria? A dark drawer in some place in Europe.’’