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3 May 2013 6:45 pm

Bizarre 6-Inch Skeleton Shown to BeHuman

13 Comments

Courtesy of Garry Nolan

Otherworldly? X-rays show that Ata is no hoax, but its DNA will disappoint UFO buffs.

Alien? Subhuman primate? Deformed child? Mumm ified fetus? The Internet is buzzing over

the nature of "Ata," a bizarre 6-inch-long skeleton featured in a new documentary on UFOs. A

Stanford University scientist who boldly entered the fray has now put to rest doubts about what

species Ata belongs to. But the mystery is not over.

The story began 10 years ago, when the diminutive remains were reportedly found in a pouch

in a ghost town in the Atacama Desert of Chile . Ata ended up in a private collection in

Barcelona; producers of the film Sirius latched onto the bizarre mummy as evidence of alien

life.

Last fall, immunologist Garry Nolan, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's

Proteomics Center for Systems Immunology at Stanford in California, heard about Ata from a

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friend and contacted the filmmakers, offering to give them a scientific readout on the specimen.

They asked him to give it a shot.

Among the apparent abnormalities, Ata spor ts 10 ribs instead of t he u sual 12 and a severely

misshapen skull. "I asked our neonatal care unit how you would go about analyzing it. Had they

seen this kind of syndrome before?" Nolan says. He was directed to pediatric radiologist Ralph

Lachman, co-director of the International Skeletal Dysplasia Registry at Cedars-Sinai Medical

Center in Los Angeles, California. "He literally wrote the book on pediatric bone disorders,"

Nolan says. Lachman was blown away, Nolan recalls: "He said, 'Wow, this is like nothing I've

ever seen before.' "

To study the specimen, Nolan sought clues in Ata's genome. He initially presumed the

specimen was tens or hundreds of thousands of years old—the Atacama Desert may be the

driest spot on the planet, so Ata could have been preserved for eons. He consulted experts

who had extracted DNA from bones of the Denisovans, an Asian relative of European Stone

Age Neander tals. It turned out that their protocols were n't necessary. "T he DNA was mode rn,

abundant, and high quality," he says, indicating that the specimen is probably a few decades

old.

To the chagrin of UFO hunters, Ata is decidedly of this world. After mapping more than 500

million reads to a reference human genome, equating to 17.7-fold coverage of the genome,

Nolan concluded that Ata "is human, there's no doubt about it." Moreover, the specimen's B2

haplotype—a category of mitochondrial DNA—reveals that its mother was from the west coast

of South America: Chile, that is.

Meanwhile, after examining x-rays, Lachman concluded that Aka's skeletal development,

based on the density of the epiphyseal plates of the knees (growth plates at the end of long

bones found only in children), surprisingly appears to be equivalent to that of a 6- to 8-year-old

child. If that holds up, there are two possibilities, Nolan says. One, a long shot, is that Ata had a

severe form of dwarfism, was actually born as a tiny human, and lived until that calendar age.

To test that hypothesis, he will try to extract hemoglobin from the specimen's bone marrow and

compare the relative amounts of fetal versus adult hemoglobin proteins. The second possibility

is that Ata, the size of a 22-week-old fetus, suffered from a severe form of a rare rapid aging

disease, progeria, and died in the womb or after premature birth.

Nolan hasn't yet turned up hits for genes known to be associated with progeria or dwarfism.He's stepping up the search for mutations through additional sequencing and casting a wider

net. Another possibility is a teratogen: a birth defect-inducing toxicant along the lines of

thalidomide. Nolan plans to analyze tissue using mass spectrometry to look for toxicants or

metabolites. But reports of a handful of other Tom Thumb-sized skeletons from Russia and

elsewhere have Nolan leaning toward a genetic explanation.

At least one expert has a more prosaic t ake—but a grees that the specimen is human. "This

looks to me like a badly desiccated and mummified human fetus or premature stillbirth," says

William Jungers, a paleoanthropologist and anatomist at Stony Brook University Medical

Center in New York. He notes that "barely ossified and immature elements" of the hands and

feet, and the wide open metopic suture, where the two frontal bones of the skull come together

down the middle of the forehead. "Genetic anomalies are not evident, probably because there

aren't any," he says. Nolan responds that the rib number and epiphyseal plate densities remain

a riddle; while he is open to the fetus hypothesis, he thinks that the jury is still out.

Nolan's analysis went viral this week; besieged as he has been by the media circus, he doesn't

regret having gotten involved in debunking a claim of alien life. "I'm thrilled with the outcome,"

he says. Once the analyses are complete, he says, he'll submit his findings for peer review.

The other claim Nolan debunks is that Ata is an elaborate hoax. The x-rays clearly show these

are real bones, complete with arterial shadows, he says. "You just couldn't fake it," he says,

adding, with a laugh, "unless you were an alien."

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13 Comments

• •

justsaying420 •

what if, they've lived in the earth just like humans, and are just another type

of hominoid and humans are to selfish to realize that there could actually be

something like this that shares the earth but hide because they're so small

and vulnerable and also with a 9% DNA difference it's not human, chimps only

have a 3% difference which is mainly junk DNA and

computer errors. 9% is to high to be a computer error especially after test ing 3

times. yeah there's still a lot more research to be done, and don't get me

wrong I'd love more then anything for it to be an alien but, there's st ill a lot of

life on this planet that we haven't discovered. selfish humans.

• •

Maggie Crooks •

interesting

• •

pinkeraser11 •

Not sure if everyone is trolling about it really being an alien or not...

140seconds •

There is no reason for extraterrestrials to be a part this conversation. There is

room for much speculation about species, dwarfism, etc., but alien life isn't

relevant in any way. I suppose folks thought it looked like the cartoonish

version of fictional aliens. But that's like wondering if a new species of f rog

might actually be a living Kermit muppet because it vaguely resembles

something Jim Henson made. Silliness. Now if it were found on a space vessel,

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• •

, , .

• •

pandorable •

Human? You must think people are pretty stupid.

Maybe this species genetically altered humans with their own DNA long

ago...and that's the reason for the DNA 'match'.

...And there are those pesky underground alien labs genetically experimenting

since their agreement with Eisenhower.

The whole DNA chase won't tell you as much as looking with your own eyes,

unless we have a bank of ET/ID DNA.

• •

cooltiger •

Sometimes science can't see the forest through the trees .If this is not a

genetic defect then it's not human . No human looks like this in-utero or still

born .It's head looks like egyptian mummies .

• •

Rudrāks •

Even if the specimen is extra terrestrial, its DNA would adapt.. Duh

• •

Submissus •

No, DNA doesn't adapt in such major ways.

Unless it's the spawn of an incredibly long list of forefathers.

And that is highly unlikely to go undiscovered.

• •

Kevin Fisch •

this is wrong. Genetic testing is ongoing but preliminary results are 8%

unmatched DNA the rest human. Stanford experts ruled out deformity and just

look at it. lol obvi not human.

• •

karamarika •

The article states that it is definitely human and the mitochondrial DNA

is matched to a specific area. How does that say not human to you?

People who want to believe in nonsense will never listen to reason.

• •

Zodd Cruz •

I have a feeling that all of those likes are accidental as mine was.

I tried to not like it and it just added it to the like tally. Any one

with eyes and a rational mind knows that our history is not

correct and what we have been told all of our lives is inaccurate

at best. It is up to us to figure it out on our own, not rely and

preconceived notions based on a book PEOPLE wrote that a

GOVERNMENT of the past approved. Wake up people. Our past

is staring at us and we are too blind to see past our beliefs andthat will only hurt our pursuit to the TRUTH, what ever that

maybe. I'm not saying that it's alien in nature, I'm saying that

calling it anything other than an unconfirmed mystery until we

have all data and tests completed is foolish. Let's finish the

puzzle before we break it apart with out theories.

• •

kevin •

This article is bullshit tho like most mainstreame articles on

anything controversial. It has 92 percent human DNA, chimps

have 95... just look at it, if you think thats normal you are just

believing what you want to believe.

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MithrA432 •

mentions mom but not dad ( source of y chromosome), they

acknowledged it was male, I would leave that out also if I was a

Stanford prof. There's that 9% unmatched DNA, don't mention

it. yup definitely human, just look at the pic, skull plates, ribs,

size, age. so normal..