A Spanish businessman and researcher have proposed a new theory about Chile's 'Atacama skeleton', a six-inch-long 'alien' mummy discovered in the Atacama Desert.
The mummy, which was first discovered in La Noria, a ghost town, has been the subject of sensational origin stories.
Seven experts in infant anatomy and anthropology argue that the 'Ata' skeleton is not unusual, unlike other small mummies presented to Mexico's Congress as proof of extraterrestrial life.
One expert called the new theory 'absurd' and stated it was not based on scientific evidence or the normal anatomical development of babies.
Sian Halcrow and her team have determined that the Ata as a tiny fetus or premature infant, likely died less than four months into pregnancy, based on its 6-inch crown-of-the-head-to-heel-length measurement.
Professor Siân Halcrow, a biological anthropologist from the University of Otago, criticized the 'Ata' 'alien' belief system, stating it resembled a normal human fetal skeleton, alongside archaeologists from Stockholm University and Stony Brook Medical School.
"We estimated the length of the femur, and we estimated that the fetus would have been about 15 weeks in-utero gestation, so very premature," Halcrow said.
The Atacama skeleton, believed to be a fetus or premature infant, was purchased by Barcelona-based entrepreneur Ramón Navia-Osorio Villar from treasure hunter Oscar Muñoz in 2003.
The mummy's dimensions are unclear, but it was taken from the Atacama ghost town. Navia-Osorio, a UFO hunter and enthusiast, published a report on the 'Atacama skeleton' in 2013.
A 2018 Stanford study led by Navia-Osorio, criticized for allegedly violating Chilean law, made a significant step forward in understanding the 'Atacama skeleton'.
Professor Halcrow noted that there is no visible indication that such genetic mutations were taking effect or would have that early in fetal development.
"With the skull in particular the skull is going to be larger in proportion to the body just because of the normal development of a baby," Professor Halcrow said.
A baby with a large and slender skull is not unusual to doctors familiar with infant development. Professor Halcrow compared Ata's skull to fetal medical replicas called 'bone clones' and found that even Ata's small facial features were not unusual for her age.
The study, published in Genome Research, argued that Ata's genes were Earth-bound and displayed unusual mutations linked to dwarfism and scoliosis, refuting skepticism of extraterrestrial claims.
Professor Halcrow explains that pressure during premature childbirth or the Atacama desert's dehydrating effects may have further elongated Ata's skull into its unique shape, as the skull of a fetus maintains many 'fontanelles', allowing the young brain to grow. Despite this, Navia-Osorio still insists Ata is not an ordinary human.
"They were very small people who lived in caves and only came out at night. Hence its strange almond-shaped eyes," told Navia-Osorio.
Navia-Osorio, a renowned author on UFOs, shared a theory that he heard via a native friend from the Aymara tribe that these beings lived with their ancestors before Spanish settlers arrived.
The Aymara people have lived on the Altiplano plateau in the Andean highlands for at least 800 years, possibly millennia. Navia-Osorio claims these cave-dwellers lived alongside the Aymara people during Europe's Middle Ages.
He disagrees with UFO disclosure movement activists' claims in 2013 that Ata was an extraterrestrial.
"We received it at the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences and there we carried out the first X-ray, with low radiation so as not to damage the specimen. This creature was not extraterrestrial, it was terrestrial" he told Cuarto Milenio.
"They already told us that they did not know what it was. The head was so voluminous; the hands were so elongated. It had no kneecaps. The clavicle was more triangular than that of humans," he narrated.
Today, he challenges scientists like Professor Halcrow's belief that Ata was a simple 15-week-old fetus, with a question.
"How could it be a fetus if it had calluses on its feet?" Navia-Osorio asked.
