The mysterious six-inch skeleton in the Atacama Desert was revealed

News24xx.com -  Ten years ago, a mysterious six-inch skeleton with a strange ‘cone-like’ skull has baffled scientists ever since it was dug up in the Atacama Desert.

Ata (the name of that skull) was found in a grave next to a church in the abandoned town of La Noria in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile. She was later bought by a Spanish collector. 

Conspiracy theorists quickly claimed the tiny body was the remains of an alien. But, scientists then weighed in and suggested it was actually the remains of a girl aged between six and eight who suffered from an  ‘apparently severe form of dwarfism’ and other ‘genetic anomalies’.

A new study suggests it may simply not have begun to form at the stage of the unborn child’s development. 

A team of researchers writing in the International Journal of Paleopathology have put forward a tragic explanation for the origins of ‘Ata’ and suggesting it was a 15-week old foetus.

Dr Bernardo Arriaza, a bioarchaeologist from the University of Tarapacá in Chile said that Ata had only 10 pairs of ribs instead of ‘the normal 12’. 

"This mummy reflects a sad loss for a mother in the Atacama Desert," said Arriaza.

One study suggested she could be hundreds of years old, whilst another claimed the body was only a few decades old, but until now, scientists were unable to conclude Ata’s age.

 

 

 

 

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