Short Stuff: Atacama Skeleton | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

Hey and welcome to the short stuff. I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. sitting in [music] for G for Dave. This. is short stuff which is off to a bad. start already. >> That's right. And this is the story of. the saddest skeleton. >> It is really sad. Um there's like five. different reasons it's sad, but the you. can kind of understand a little bit why. the skeleton would get so much. attention. It's known as the Adakama. skeleton. Um, and it was found in the.

desert of northern Chile, Adakama desert. in an abandoned town called Loria back. in 2003. That's right. Uh, it's little uh very. small about 6 in in length uh or 15 cm. and it has a a very interesting shape to. the skull. Very conically shaped and. also has only 10 pairs of ribs uh. wherein we usually have 12 pairs. And. so, of course, right away, uh, there. were UFO, uh, people saying, "It's an.

alien. It's got to be a tiny little. alien. >> There's no other explanation.". >> Yeah. Look at that thing. Uh, other. people said, "Hey, not so fast. Looks. more like a non-human primate. Maybe a. shape shifter. Uh, we don't know from. from what weird place this thing came. from. Um, but. that's just the beginning of the story. That's all. I don't want to ruin. anything just yet. >> Yeah. The um the skeleton also is not. fully skeletonized. Like there's.

desiccated flesh attached to tissue. attached to it in some places too, including the face. And the reason why. is because like I said, it came from the. Adakama Desert in northern Chile. That's. one of the driest non-polar places on. Earth. Um and it can mummify human. remains pretty easily. It's between the. Chilean co coastal mountain range and. the Andes. And the town of Lenoria, which is situated in the desert, was. once a mining town. Um, a nitrate mining.

town. I think salt peter, actually. >> Yeah, that's right. God, you love saying. salt peter. >> Yeah. Why are you going to say anything. else when you can say salt peter? >> Agreed. Uh, it's used as a fertilizer a. lot. So, they abandoned the town in. 1930s. um I guess after they had mined up all. that stuff. Um so it's you know long way. of saying it's a very um good place to. preserve skeletons there and just. naturally but not only that but the. ancient churro culture there had a.

tradition of mummifying bodies uh on. purpose through their embalming process. So an even longer way of saying that. finding something out there it is it is. not unlikely that it would be pretty. well preserved. Yeah. And not not the. least of which because of the solar. radiation there. Apparently it's higher. than anywhere on Earth. Not a lot of. water. It's very hot in the day, very. cold at night. It's um it's just it's. like just a perfect place to to make a.

mummy. And so in 2003, the world first. heard of the Adacama skeleton thanks to. a guy named Oscar Munoz, who's a. treasure hunter, who said that he went. to Lenoria and found just sitting on a. shelf in one of the buildings the. Adacama skeleton. And most other people. say, "Oh, we don't think that you just. found this thing on a shelf.". >> Yeah. Most other people say he really. dug this thing up from a burial site. So. that's sad thing number one. And no, no,

number one, as you're not just supposed. to do that as a treasure hunter. That's. not a treasure. >> Sure. >> Um later on that skeleton was sold to a. guy named Rammon Navia Assorio. He was a. Spanish business owner and a just. collector of oddities and also it just. so happens a president of the Institute. for Research and Exobiological Studies, which is a UFO enthusiast organization. >> Right. And so um eufologists have like a.

fairly smallish community uh of people. who will actually travel to conferences. So uh it's not a big surprise that Navia. Osorio um met up with a guy named Steven. M. Greer who is a very prominent. eupfologist. I think he must have come. up in our area 51 episode because I I. recognize his name. But um he is uh very. outspoken about trying to get the US. government to um disclose all of the. information they surely have on aliens,

their awareness of aliens, what really. crashed in Roswell, all of that stuff. And when Greer found out that Navia. Osorio had the Otakama skeleton, he was. like, "We have to figure out what this. thing is. Can I take a tissue sample?". >> That's right. Uh and that feels like a. great place for a break. What a. cliffhanger. >> Yeah. We'll be right back.

[music]. All right. So, Steven Greer has uh. gotten in touch with Navaria Asorio and. said, "Uh, hey, I got a plan here. Let's. get um this uh let's ext extract some. DNA, have it examined for this. documentary called Sirius, s i r i s.

>> Uh it's inspired out of one of my books. Um we can figure out what this thing is. like, you know, hopefully um full boore. and we can know for sure. >> Yeah. And I guess um the serious got. publicized enough that a guy named Gary. Nolan, who's a microbiologist, he. reached out to Stephen Greer and said, "Hey um I can help you run a genomic. test on this thing um for your movie. serious. Let's do this." And Steven.

Greer said, "Great. Let's I'm sure that. was quite unexpected.". >> Yeah. And another thing that was. unexpected was they found that the DNA. was uh quote modern, abundant, and high. quality. and is human. There's no doubt. about it. So, obviously, this was not an. alien being. Uh they published this. research in March of 2018 in the journal. Genome Research. And what they found uh. is, you know, the second and probably. most sad thing is that it was probably a.

a little baby girl who died in the womb. >> Yeah. That she was almost certainly. still born. if she was alive when she. was born, she would not have lived very. long. And um they like if you haven't. seen the Otakama skeleton, now's. probably a good time to go look up a. picture of her. Um but the reason she. has such an unusual appearance uh is. because they attribute it to the really. like disproportionate number of genetic.

mutations she has. um you know just one single genetic. mutation can very easily alter a. person's appearance. She had multiple uh. genetic mutations and they have no idea. why but they're like well this explains. basically everything. >> Yeah. And uh also seemed like it was um. you know pretty sure that it's a preterm. birth. She's very well preserved. Uh so. they're pretty sure that she's under 500. years old and that's what I meant by. fairly recent. But they said they don't.

know like she could have died in the. past like 30 or 40 years and if that's. true then her parents might potentially. still be around and we have this. situation where there could be parents. and even if there aren't we have. snatched this uh skeleton from a tomb of. this little girl who died prematurely. because of uh uh you know issues like. birth issues and it's like the saddest. thing in the world. >> and not only that people around the. world are saying like alien, look at.

this, obviously an alien. >> Yeah, >> it's like no, these are actually um. congenital genetic issues, not alien. So, yeah, you put all this stuff. together, you just hope that the family. is not aware of this. The thing that. stood out to me though, Chuck, if she. died within, say, 40 years, that would. put her in the what, the 80s, the 70s, and the um the town where she was found. allegedly, Lenoria, was abandoned in the. 30s. So, I'm not sure what she would be. doing there, but I did see in a lot of.

different places they're they're like, "She could have died quite recently, >> right?" Yeah. Uh, well, it was such a. sort of outrage after they found this. out uh when that paper was published in. 2018 that the Chilean Society of. Biological Anthropology and the Chilean. Association of Archaeologists both came. out and were like, "This was a really. unethical study. Uh, shouldn't have done. it." Uh, it's against the law. First of. all, under Chilean law, it's illegal to. carry out uh archaeological, anthropological, or paleontological.

excavations without getting. authorization from the count uh Council. of National Monuments, which wasn't. done. >> That's a big one. They're also like, "By. the way, give us our um remains back. Let's repatriate her." And then a lot of. um focus came on to Gary Nolan and his. um group for even running this test in. the first place. And um they they. essentially understood. They're like, you know, you're right. This this whole. this whole jam is quite unethical. At. least in our defense, we did not handle.

the body. We've never seen the body in. person. We got a 1 millimeter a cubic. millimeter um piece of bone to use as. the sample. So, at least there's that. And yes, we believe that that this. baby's remain repatriated back to Chile. So I I don't I don't I don't know if. they got all the heat off of them, but. at the very least they were willing to. acknowledge the ethical lapse on their. part, for sure. >> Yeah, I think that was a fairly standup.

thing to do. >> But um the body is not back in Chile. It's still in the possession of Raone. Navia Oorio in Spain. >> Oh, really? Yeah, >> he's got it still. I don't know that. he's making any moves to give it back. And also I saw Steven Greer disputes the. findings that it was um human. You got anything else? >> Just a. scoff if I've ever heard one. >> Yeah. >> Um all right. Love you, Chuck. Short. stuff's out.

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