New Research Casts Doubt on Analysis of Atacama Alien Skeleton

nivek

As Above So Below
New Research Casts Doubt on Analysis of Atacama Alien Skeleton

Decades ago, scavengers rummaging through an abandoned church in a long-forgotten derelict mining town in Chile’s Atacama desert came across a gruesome and bizarre find: a tiny, seemingly anomalous skeleton. The entire skeleton can fit in a human hand, and is topped by an oversized skull with conspicuously large eye sockets. Naturally, the skeleton was accused of belonging to an extraterrestrial or ET-human hybrid and has since been the subject of speculation, rumor, and mystery.

atacama.jpg


Earlier this year, however, geneticists and immunologists from Stanford University obtained permission to perform genetic testing on the anomalous skeleton to conclusively identify who or what it may have once belonged to. According to their analysis, the skeleton is merely an unfortunate example of how there are both winners and losers in the gene pool lottery. Their study concluded that the Atacama skeleton belongs to either a six-to-eight year-old child who suffered from a host of rare and deformative genetic disorders, or to an unborn fetus with an advanced aging disorder. It’s never aliens.

Now, a new paper is calling that study into question – but not because there is evidence to suggest the Atacama skeleton might be anything more than it has already been determined to be. Instead, both the Chilean government and an international group of scientists and medical researchers are slamming the study for two reasons: one, an improper use of genomic testing; and two, ethics violations. Nerd fight!

AtacamaHumanoidXRay-570x321.jpg


On one hand, this new paper accuses the genetic testing of the Atacama skeleton, or Ata, of being improperly carried out:
Unfortunately, there was no scientific rationale to undertake genomic analyses of Ata because the skeleton is normal, the identified genetic mutations are possibly coincidental, and none of them are known to be strongly associated with skeletal dysplasias that would affect the phenotype at this young age.
These scientists believe “it is most likely a coincidence that the authors found this individual [the Atacama skeleton] had some mutations in genes” because the type of mutations found typically don’t have an effect on physiological until much later in fetal development.

More worryingly, the authors of this new paper accuse the analysis of Ata to be unethical. Once it was deemed that the skeleton belonged to a human and that the relatives or parents of the individual were likely still living, the authors write, the skeleton should have been immediately returned to Chile:
We caution DNA researchers about getting involved in cases that lack clear context and legality, or where the remains have resided in private collections. […] Had these researchers involved, from the beginning, a biological anthropologist who specialises in human remains, we are certain that ethical concerns would have been raised regarding the potentially living relatives of Ata.
This case, even though it deals with a recent specimen individual, highlights one of the gruesome and dehumanizing side of archaeology. Think about it: all of those mummies and skeletons we dig up were once people who were carefully interred with intention and the belief that they would remain undisturbed in the ground. Who are we to dig up the bones of those who came before us in the name of “progress” or advancing knowledge? Is nothing – or no one – sacred? While it’s important to know where we came from, it’s just as important to hold some degree of reverence for the dead. At what point in history do we draw the line?

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nivek

As Above So Below
Here is the research paper:

On engagement with anthropology: A critical evaluation of skeletal and developmental abnormalities in the Atacama preterm baby and issues of forensic and bioarchaeological research ethics. Response to Bhattacharya et al. “Whole-genome sequencing of Atacama skeleton shows novel mutations linked with dysplasia” in Genome Research

Abstract

Here we evaluate Bhattacharya et al.’s (2018) recent paper “Whole-genome sequencing of Atacama skeleton shows novel mutations linked with dysplasia” published in Genome Research. In this short report, we examine the hypothesis that the so-called “Atacama skeleton” has skeletal abnormalities indicative of dysplasia, critique the validity of the interpretations of disease based on genomic analyses, and comment on the ethics of research on this partially mummified human foetus. The current paper acts as a case study of the importance of using an anthropological approach for aDNA research on human remains. A critical evaluation of the ethically controversial paper by Bhattacharya et al. highlights how an understanding of skeletal biological processes, including normal and abnormal growth and development, taphonomic processes, environmental context, and close attention to ethical issues of dealing with human remains, is vital to scientific interpretations. To this end, close collaboration with palaeopathologists and local archaeologists through appropriate peer-reviewed journals will add to the rigour of scientific interpretation and circumvent misinterpretation.

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humanoidlord

ce3 researcher
New Research Casts Doubt on Analysis of Atacama Alien Skeleton

Decades ago, scavengers rummaging through an abandoned church in a long-forgotten derelict mining town in Chile’s Atacama desert came across a gruesome and bizarre find: a tiny, seemingly anomalous skeleton. The entire skeleton can fit in a human hand, and is topped by an oversized skull with conspicuously large eye sockets. Naturally, the skeleton was accused of belonging to an extraterrestrial or ET-human hybrid and has since been the subject of speculation, rumor, and mystery.

atacama.jpg


Earlier this year, however, geneticists and immunologists from Stanford University obtained permission to perform genetic testing on the anomalous skeleton to conclusively identify who or what it may have once belonged to. According to their analysis, the skeleton is merely an unfortunate example of how there are both winners and losers in the gene pool lottery. Their study concluded that the Atacama skeleton belongs to either a six-to-eight year-old child who suffered from a host of rare and deformative genetic disorders, or to an unborn fetus with an advanced aging disorder. It’s never aliens.

Now, a new paper is calling that study into question – but not because there is evidence to suggest the Atacama skeleton might be anything more than it has already been determined to be. Instead, both the Chilean government and an international group of scientists and medical researchers are slamming the study for two reasons: one, an improper use of genomic testing; and two, ethics violations. Nerd fight!

AtacamaHumanoidXRay-570x321.jpg


On one hand, this new paper accuses the genetic testing of the Atacama skeleton, or Ata, of being improperly carried out:

These scientists believe “it is most likely a coincidence that the authors found this individual [the Atacama skeleton] had some mutations in genes” because the type of mutations found typically don’t have an effect on physiological until much later in fetal development.

More worryingly, the authors of this new paper accuse the analysis of Ata to be unethical. Once it was deemed that the skeleton belonged to a human and that the relatives or parents of the individual were likely still living, the authors write, the skeleton should have been immediately returned to Chile:

This case, even though it deals with a recent specimen individual, highlights one of the gruesome and dehumanizing side of archaeology. Think about it: all of those mummies and skeletons we dig up were once people who were carefully interred with intention and the belief that they would remain undisturbed in the ground. Who are we to dig up the bones of those who came before us in the name of “progress” or advancing knowledge? Is nothing – or no one – sacred? While it’s important to know where we came from, it’s just as important to hold some degree of reverence for the dead. At what point in history do we draw the line?

.
to me it was a necessary evil to make people like stephen greer shut up
the fetus is clearly human and there is no proof that its ET in origin
 

nivek

As Above So Below
That skeleton just looks too expectedly alien to be true to me.

I agree, it is not clearly human, visually there is not much human appearance about it...

...
 

Gambeir

Celestial
Hmm....well hows this gonna play out on the "We is descended from Aliens meme, and because of that I am your king and natural ruler because I have the most deformed skull."
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Well, if you drop an embryo in dry conditions you get a mummy.

The plates of the skull don't join until after birth so the shape could be the result of the drying process.

The shape of the skull could be quite normal for that species if it alien to this planet...Could be a unknown subterranean hominid...

...
 

CasualBystander

Celestial
yep, if its not a fetus, its certainly some extinct terrestrial hominid

The thing is only 6 inches tall.

Hope that isn't the average size. Their "flying saucer" would be the size of a hat box. Just a size of a "Full Choke" shotgun pattern at 60 yards.

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As most people know "12 gauge" is my preferred method for communicating with Aliens.

We could train DC rats to fight alien invaders.

We could use pussy cats - but with DC rats we don't care if the alien wins once in a while.
 
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Rick Hunter

Celestial
What I meant was, it conveniently looks too much like an alien to be one. Mummies keep tantalizing us, but they all turn out not to be so or have a habit of disappearing before real examination can happen.
 
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