Ata — the Atacama Humanoid

A 15 cm skeletal figure found in a ghost town, circulated for years as a possible alien body. Whole-genome sequencing in 2018 identified a human female fetus with severe skeletal dysplasia mutations.

The proportions read as impossible — 15 cm with apparently years-old bone density and ten pairs of ribs — which is why it circulated for a decade as a candidate non-human specimen.

Genome Research (2018) closed it: human DNA, female, Chilean ancestry, with novel mutations in skeletal-development genes explaining every anomaly. A tragedy, not an alien.

Explained. A conventional identification is established in the record.

STATUS IS OUR CURRENT ASSESSMENT, NOT A VERDICT · REVIEWED 3 SEPT 2026