Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Wednesday Weird: Ata the Humanoid

**Warning: Creep Factor Ahead**


On October 19th, 2003, a man was looking for objects of historical value in the ghost town of La Noria, a ghost town in the Atatcam desert in Chile.

Near an abandoned church he found a white cloth containing a strange skeleton around 6 inches in length.

It had nine ribs, hard teeth, a bulging skull with a nob on top.

People didn't know what it was. Which, makes sense, because look at it:

 
 

 
 



Some people thought it was the remains of a fetus. Or perhaps a monkey. Others thought that finally, here was proof of extra-terrestrial life on earth.

Was it any of those things?

It turns out, no, it wasn't. DNA testing released this year (2013) confirmed that the skeleton was indeed human, but a child (probably) between the ages of six and eight. 91% of the genome matches the human genome, and the 9% that doesn't match could be due to multiple factors, including the quality of the specimen and techniques used. It's mitochondrial DNA, though, show that it's mother was a Chilean woman.

They're not sure how old the bones are, but probably at least a few decades.  The genetic mutations that created it are still unknown, though it's clear the child lived for quite a few years, despite its tiny size.

Thoughts?

10 comments:

Matthew MacNish said...

Headshrinkers?

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Bodyshrinkers!

Annalisa Crawford said...

I saw this picture in the newspapers and it's still just as freaky now. I can't work it out, but it looks more alien than human.

Austin Gorton said...

Wow, the fact that it apparently lived six or seven years at that size is amazing.

I'm not surprised it turned out to be human, but I would have guessed a still born fetus or something.

Maria Zannini said...

I read about this recently. I'm with Teebore. I thought it was a fetus too.

Rena said...

You know, I never stopped doing the hebeegeebee dance from the last time it was pointed out to me.

I think the creepiest part was that the child had lived for so long. Though I really do hope this is some sort of body shrinking thing gone awry...

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Poor thing. It probably suffered all the days of its life.

Leandra Wallace said...

Yikes, that was completely disturbing! I hope it was well loved while it was here...

Unknown said...

Agreed - super freaky.

Kristin Rae said...

Oh wow!!! That's too freaky!!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...