Scientists destroy assumptions about Atacama's fake "foreign baby"

A few years ago, a controversy was generated internationally because of the discovery of a strange skeleton in a locality in northern Chile. Since then, the assumptions have been manipulated about what it really is, and now another is added.

Of course, the first thing to be dismissed was that it was an extraterrestrial. Over time, a group of scientists from Stanford University and the University of California at San Francisco mentioned that the skeleton (called Ata) was actually a girl with deformities.

At the time, they said that it was a girl in at least 7 known genes. As we have mentioned on the occasion, according to the study, the exact disease was a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. The investigation and treatment of the skeleton caused an uproar at the Association of Chilean Archaeologists, who stated that there was little ethics in handling, mentioning: "These are human remains that have been searched, traded and illegally displayed. "

An international study conducted by the University of Otago in New Zealand published a study entitled "A Critical Assessment of Skeletal and Developmental Abnormalities in Atacama's Premature Baby and Issues". 39, ethics of forensic and bioarchaeological research ".

According to Sian Halcrow, who made statements on ABC, "There is no abnormality." Ata's had a normal skeletal development in a fetus so early. " Stanford scientists reportedly used faulty logic and made significant mistakes in the evaluation of skeletal morphology. "

In fact, they mention that the genetic variants discovered by the first team at the girl," have no known functional effect. on the human skeleton at this stage of fetal development, while the other variants found are new and their implications unknown. "

Here is what they mention in the document:

There was no scientific reason to perform genomic analyzes of Ata because the skeleton is normal, the identified genetic mutations are perhaps a coincidence, and it is known that none of them is strongly associated with skeletal dysplasias (…) In the case of Ata, the tests scientists using complete techniques useless and unethical.

On the shape of the skull, the scientist mentioned the following to the medium: 19659009] That it is longer than it does can be explained as much by the taphonomic processes (in the funeral environment) as by others from birth.It is common that the cranial remains buried in the ground are deformed, because the heat and the pressure can slowly affect their shape.In addition, a fetus of this age does not have the same cranial proportions That's a term fetus and, during labor, the relationships between the bones of the skull can be impaired when they are squeezed into the cervix of the uterus, in a process called molding. This molding can reduce the diameter of the skull, giving an elongated appearance, something more serious in the premature fetus.

Scientists have also clung to what the Chilean Association of Archaeologists has mentioned at one point. deal was quite contrary to the ethic. Bernardo Arraiza, bioarchaeologist at the University of Tarapacá and co-author of the study, reaffirmed this by mentioning that "it was assumed that he was an extraterrestrial and that he was also exhumed irregularly and sold ".