Six-Inch-Long Mummified ‘Alien’ Skeleton, Thought To Be Extraterrestrial, Identified Through New DNA Testing

A six-inch-long mummified “alien” skeleton has finally been identified, thanks to new DNA testing. The tiny skeleton, that’s been nicknamed “Ata,” since it was found in the Atacama Desert in Chile, was previously partially identified through DNA testing in 2013. However, what was once thought to be extraterrestrial in nature, or even an alien-human hybrid, has been more-definitively identified, and a new DNA analysis explains why the specimen looks so mutated, according to Gizmodo on Thursday.

Although the Atacama Desert alien skeleton has an almost ancient appearance, the Gizmodo article shares that Ata is really only about 40 years ago and was discovered 15 years ago “in a deserted Chilean town.” A recent study of the alien skeleton that’s published on Genome Research says that, due to its odd features, speculation once swirled that the humanoid might have actually been extraterrestrial or a “preserved nonhuman primate.” A previous DNA analysis that was done in 2013 actually did confirm that the alien skeleton was nearly 100 percent human.

The Inquisitr previously reported that Ata was not exactly evidence of alien life, but was, rather, identified five years ago as a human child, probably male, that died between the ages of “six to eight years old.” Questions still remained, though, about what would cause a child of that age to measure so small, at a height of only six inches. Also, the alien-looking skeleton had other odd physical features, such as long limbs, slanted and sunken-in eye sockets, an elongated and pointed skull, underdeveloped jaw, and only 10 ribs, rather than 12.

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According to Newsweek, the Atacama Desert alien skeleton mystery has now been solved through the recent DNA testing done at the University of California. Scientists have now discovered, through DNA that was taken from the alien skeleton’s bone marrow, that several different rare and fatal genetic mutations caused the tiny human skeleton to look alien in nature. The results of the new DNA analysis confirm that Ata was not a male child, but, rather, a Chilean female fetus at the time of her death.

The study goes on to say that the fetus had the bone growth of a six-year-old due to a “rare bone-aging disorder,” according to the previously-mentioned article on Gizmodo. Also, the scientists concluded that the Atacama Desert alien skeleton suffered from dwarfism, along with seven other gene mutations. The team of researchers also don’t know exactly what caused all of Ata’s gene mutations but did comment that it was “quite surprising how many mutations” the alien skeleton has.

Tiny Atacama skeleton was girl with bone disease: study https://t.co/lUEWExwfIt pic.twitter.com/NOAI4co0B5

— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) March 23, 2018

Newsweek says that the Atacama Desert alien skeleton was found in 2003 “in a bag on a shelf in a house next to a church in a small, abandoned nitrate mining town” in Chile.