Questions arise over authenticity of 'alien' corpses unveiled in Mexican Congress

By Emre Basaran

ISTANBUL (AA) - Just over a month after a groundbreaking US Congressional hearing on the existence of extraterrestrials, Mexican lawmakers took the quest for alien life a step further on Tuesday when two alleged non-human corpses were put on display during a session.

But the authenticity of the apparently mummified bodies is being hotly debated due to their inclusion in a previously aired documentary and the involvement of a journalist with a dubious past.

During the hearing, which was attended by the executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace and former US Navy pilot Ryan Graves, who was in the spotlight at the hearing in the US Congress, two alleged non-human corpses believed to be over a thousand years old were revealed.

“These specimens are not part of our evolutionary history on Earth. They are not beings recovered from a UFO crash. Instead, they were found in diatom (algae) mines and subsequently became fossilized,” Jaime Maussan, a journalist and long-time UFO enthusiast, told the Mexican Congress.

According to Maussan, who carried out the unveiling and was speaking under oath, the alleged alien mummies were subjected to a thorough examination by scientists at the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) and even DNA evidence from the bodies was secured.

- Documentary that started it all

Research conducted by Anadolu shows the two alleged alien corpses appear to have been first featured in a documentary called “Special Report: Unearthing Nazca” published by US-based streaming service Gaia, which is famous for its content on conspiracy theories.

“In the spring of 2017, Gaia filmmakers joined researchers outside Nazca, Peru to investigate several anomalous, mummified bodies. Our initially published footage of the mummies spurred controversy online and within the scientific community, encouraging a deeper investigation. Now, after seeking a multitude of independent scientists and universities to analyze these bodies, we’ve come to believe they are unlike anything ever cataloged in the fossil records,” says an article on Gaia’s website describing the documentary.

According to Gaia’s website, the nicknames given to the alleged aliens are “Josephina” and “Alberto.”

“Ostensibly this mummified duo is of an entirely different species than Maria, as seen by their stature and bone structure,” the website says, referring to another alleged alien mummy with an elongated skull and three protracted phalanges on each hand and foot.

“The presence of eggs inside Josephina and a bizarrely embedded metal plate in her chest added to the mystery,” it adds.

On the website, there is also a trio of alleged alien mummies alongside those nicknamed Maria, Josephina and Alberto.

Collectively called “The Family,” the trio also resembles the alleged alien corpses revealed in the Mexican Congress, but their skull structure appears to be slightly different, while Josephina and Alberto look exactly like the corpses showcased at the hearing.

- Debate over authenticity

The fact that the unveiling was led by Maussan has sparked debate over a possible hoax.

The television personality and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) enthusiast was the person who reported the existence of the mummies to Gaia, which consequently led to the production of “Unearthing Nazca.”

Snopes, a popular fact-checking website, has debunked the documentary as fake.

“The previous discovery of mummies with elongated skulls in Peru, like that shown in the Gaia video, has prompted similar wild speculation about alien species. But anthropologists have explained that elongated skulls are the result of an ancient practice of artificial cranial deformation, in which young children had their heads bound in cloth, rope, or even wooden boards, possibly as part of a religious ritual,” the website, whose reliability has also been previously questioned by the media, including Forbes, said in a report.

The area where the alleged mummies were found is also a matter of debate. The region in Peru is a UNESCO-designated spot home to the famous Nazca Lines, which the likes of Swiss writer Erich von Daniken claimed was a hotbed for extraterrestrial activity.

The majority of the lines, which scientists say were made by the Nazca people, who flourished from around A.D. 1 to 700, continue to amuse researchers and UAP enthusiasts alike, in an apparent contribution to the astonishment surrounding the alleged alien mummies.