The science and ethics of the South American survey on the "Ata" mummy criticized in a new study

A tiny, unusual mummy was brought to the attention of Stanford researchers in 2012. Found in Chile, the body had a cone-shaped head, and was just six inches long, but its bone structure resembled that of an 8-

Scientists from Stanford and the University of California at San Francisco undertook DNA analyzes and other tests, and published their results in a newspaper in March.

The human remains had died as a right baby at the time of birth in the last 40 years, and the child was riddled with mutations that resulted in the strange appearance, according to their findings .

But now an international team is questioning the findings, and even the first study ethics, in a new article published in International Journal of Paleopathology .

The new team of critics, led by Sian Halcrow of the University of Otago in New Zealand, said that most of the DNA work should not have been "Unfortunately, there is no reason" There was no scientific reason to undertake genomic analyzes of Ata because the skeleton is normal, the identified genetic mutations are possible and none of the genetic mutations are known to be strongly associated with skeletal pathology Halcrow said in a new statement on the work

The theory of their anthropological look at the data: the figure was a normal fetus.at the anatomy and development of the skeleton, we find no evidence of one of the skeletal anomalies claimed by the authors, "the researchers wrote. "Their observations of 'abnormalities' represent normal skeletal development in the fetus, head casting of the childbirth and potential post-mortem taphonomic effects."

The first article estimated that the mummified child was between 6 and 8 years old at the age of death, but the new paper looks rather at the long bones and finds that it is died at about 15 weeks of gestation, the researchers wrote.

The skull can also be lengthened due to long-term heat and burial pressure, the team adds.

Overall, the diagnoses of cranioectodermal skeletal dysplasia and Greenberg both lack real phenotypic evidence, according to the new document

. The use of the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) database in the first article indicated that 64 gene variants may have been harmful.

"By the time I saw it, I could see that there was something of interest." Initial researchers, who specializes in bioinformatics at the UCSF Institute for Computational Health Sciences, in a statement earlier this year, said. "It was a little bit of information, and I'm not an expert in bone.It was a very blind analysis."

But the last look of Halcrow and Otago left them with serious doubts. "

The ethical issues that followed meant that further analysis should have stopped with confirmation that the child was human. , and the body should have been returned to be buried in Chile.

"(The scientists) undertook a DNA analysis in 2013, and unsurprisingly confirmed that the mummy was human," writes the team. "Once his humanity confirmed, the analysis should have stopped and his body should have been repatriated to Chile." We warn DNA researchers to involve him in cases that have not occurred. no clear context and legality, or where the remains resided in private collections. "