The Atacama Skeleton

 Author: Ailyn Mendiola Romero

In 2003, Oscar Munoz was trailing around La Noria, in the Atacama region of Chile, which is where the name Atacama Skeleton or “Ata” originated from https://thelittlehouseof horrors.com/humberstone-and-la-noria/. While trailing around, he stumbled across a mysterious leather bag. Inside of the bag was a white cloth, wrapped in the cloth was a mummified 6-inch skeleton. According to several sources, “Ata” did not look like a human skeleton. It had several abnormal structures, a cone-shaped head and ten ribs, rather than the normal 12. This caught the media’s attention, naming it “The Atacama Alien.” In 2012, an analysis was conducted proving that the skeleton appeared to have been in the Atacama Desert for about 40 years. This intrigued scientists at Stanford University and UC San Francisco, Garry Nolan and Atul Butte, because this meant there was still DNA intact, which could be taken for new studies. With permission, Garry Nolan took a sample of Ata’s lip to run a DNA analysis. Their mission was to identify the identity of this Atacama skeleton.

Atacama Desert's Mummified Skeleton (Beyond Science informational video from 2018)

On March 22, 2018, almost two decades after the Atacama skeleton was discovered, Garry Nolan and Atul Butte’s research was released to the public in Genome Research https://genome. cshlp.org /content/early/ 2018/03/21/gr .223693.117. This gave everyone either a relief that it wasn’t an alien or a slight disappointment. The article stated not only was Ata not an alien but, most likely, was of Chilian descent. It is unsure the exact age of Ata, but she’s possibly either pre- or post-term birth. The reason for her death was a rare bone aging disorder such as cranioectodermal dysplasia and Greenberg skeletal dysplasia, which resulted in making her look older than her actual age. Although Ata was proven to be dead by birth, her bone age appeared to be 6-8 years at the time, suggesting a new possible form of dwarfism.

Mummified specimen from Atacama region of Chile 

(Sanchita Bhattacharya/University of

California San Francisco)

so, there was no alien baby, just a baby girl who was exploited at death and confused for an alien cause of her condition which killed her at birth. As we know now, the Atacama Skeleton is in private possession in Spain by Ramon Navia- Osorio.

Works Cited:

Beyond Science. “Atacama Desert’s Mummified Skeleton.” YouTube, 11 April 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXyiQeHSg84

The Little House Of Horrors. “Humberston and La Noria.” The Little House of Horrors. 7 November. 2024. https://thelittlehouseofhorrors.com/humberstone-and-la-noria/.

De Abreu, Kristine. “The Alien of the Atacama” Explorersweb, 7 June. 2023. https://explorersweb.com/the-alien-of-the-atacama/.

Garry Nolan. “The Atacama Skeleton” Genome Research, 22 March. 2018. https://genome.cshlp.org /content/early/ 2018/03/21/gr .223693.117

Bhattacharya, Sanchita. “ Mummified Spicemen” WEB. 8 November. 2024. https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/180322095103-001-atacama-mummy.jpg?q=x_2,y_0,h_1179,w_2096,c_crop/h_653,w_1160/f_webp

Other References for Research:

Genome Research: The Atacama Skeleton
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5932602/ This web source is from Garry Nolan, a Stanford University professor, and Atul Butte, a University of California San Francisco professor. They provide further information on their research studies conducted against the Atacama skeleton.

Stanford Medicine: Mysterious skeleton shows molecular complexity of bone diseases
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2018/03/mysterious-skeleton-shows-molecularcomplexity-of-bone-diseases.html This web source provides insights of Garry Nolan, a Standford University professor.

CNN: Researchers finally solve the mystery of ‘alien’ skeleton

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/22/health/atacama-skeleton-mystery/index.html In this web source, Strickland provided direct quotes of the one-on-one conversation she’s had with Garry Nolan, providing exclusive details.