Report Update: Alien-Looking Skeleton Poses Medical Mystery

[tom_mai78101]

A teensy skeleton with a squashed alien-like head may have earthly origins, but the remains, found in the Atacama Desert a decade ago, do make for quite a medical mystery.

Apparently when the mummified specimen was discovered, some had suggested the possibility it was an alien that had somehow landed on Earth, though the researchers involved never suggested this otherworldly origin.

Now, DNA and other tests suggest the individual was a human and was 6 to 8 years of age when he or she died. Even so, the remains were just 6 inches (15 centimeters) long.

"While the jury is out regarding the mutations that cause the deformity, and there is a real discrepancy in how we account for the apparent age of the bones … every nucleotide I've been able to look at is human," researcher Garry Nolan, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford School of Medicine, told LiveScience. "I've only scratched the surface in the analysis. But there is nothing that jumps out so far as to scream 'nonhuman.'"

Teensy alien-looking skeleton from Chile poses a medical mystery

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Varine]

Science will tell you people were much shorter back then.

 

[Accname]

It was an ancient circus freak.

 

[Varine]

Smurf.

 

[tom_mai78101]

Smurf.

They do exist. Just not blue skin.

 

[FireCat]

It look like a "plastic Alien!"

 

[SouLEDGE]

If you look at every sort of abnormality humans have to offer, I don't find this that strange, very cool though, like I drop my cellphone and it rolls under the couch, and I could just ask my smurf buddy to
go on an adventure and find it

 

[tom_mai78101]

 

[camelCase]

Despite all this, I really want it to be an alien =/
I mean, the world is way too boring as it is now.
I want this to spark some kind of search through the stars for our alien friends.

(Then again, wanting it won't make it happen)

 

[Varine]

Uhh we already HAVE a search going for the Smurfs. Fuck the aliens, we'll find them tomorrow.