Mummies From Outer Space? Mexico’s Congress Gets a Firsthand Look

Mexico’s Congress is normally meant to be a venue for solemn shows on budgets and different critical laws. But this week, lawmakers heard testimony from a self-proclaimed U.F.O. researcher who introduced with him some uncommon objects: two mummified specimens that he claimed had been the our bodies of aliens.

Really.

The presentation of the mummies on Tuesday by Jaime Maussan, a journalist who has speculated broadly on aliens, prompted jaws to drop and memes to multiply across the nation. The two specimens, which Mr. Maussan stated had been present in Peru in 2017, had been tiny in stature and chalky in coloration; every had three-fingered palms and what gave the impression to be shrunken or desiccated heads.

“These are nonhuman beings who are not part of our terrestrial evolution,” Mr. Maussan declared underneath oath, with a sign-language interpreter at his facet.

The specimens, he added, had been buried at a distant website in Peru and had been about 1,000 years outdated, based on carbon testing carried out by researchers on the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The researchers, nonetheless, distanced themselves from Mr. Maussan’s conclusions.

Mr. Maussan lives in Mexico and is well-known for making such claims whereas dabbling within the realm of pseudoscience on tv and on YouTube, in addition to promoting his personal line of well being dietary supplements. His presentation solid consideration on the rising fascination in Mexico with the potential of extraterrestrial life, an outgrowth, some say, of efforts by American authorities to elevate the veil on secrecy in authorities applications which have studied unexplained phenomena.

Mr. Maussan didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Others talking earlier than Mexico’s Congress included Ryan Graves, a former fighter pilot within the U.S. Navy who has described a detailed encounter with what appeared like a flying sphere encasing a dice. Mr. Graves, who equally testified this yr within the U.S. Congress, informed Mexican lawmakers that such encounters had been “grossly underreported.”

Mr. Maussan was invited by a lawmaker, Sergio Gutiérrez Luna, who stated he was desirous about listening to totally different views on a subject of huge curiosity.

“What we did here was an exercise in listening,” Mr. Luna, who belongs to the governing Morena social gathering, informed reporters after the presentation. “Learning about subjects, whatever they may be, is done by finding contrasting opinions.”

Still, Mr. Maussan’s presentation shocked many in scientific circles in Mexico. After photos of the mummies started circulating, the Institute of Physics on the National Autonomous University of Mexico launched a assertion making it clear that its researchers had by no means examined the specimens themselves however had merely executed carbon testing in 2017 on pores and skin samples supplied by a consumer.

The college lab which did the testing “disassociates itself from any use, interpretation, or subsequent misrepresentation of the results it provides,” the institute stated. “In no case do we draw conclusions about the origin of these samples.”

Similarly, Antígona Segura, considered one of Mexico’s prime astrobiologists, questioned Mr. Maussan’s contentions. “These conclusions are simply not backed up by evidence,” stated Dr. Segura, who collaborates with the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, a NASA initiative to seek for life on distant worlds. “The whole thing is very shameful.”

It was unclear how Mr. Maussan received the mummified specimens to Mexico from Peru, whether or not they’re truly from Peru, or if his specimens are reproductions or totally different from different mummified stays beforehand stated to be extraterrestrial, that are nonetheless in Peru.

But Peruvian news experiences have steered that Mr. Maussan received wind of some mummies in 2017 from a Peruvian tomb raider. Analysis of the specimens in query in Peru confirmed that they had been manufactured utilizing a mix of human and animal bones, vegetable fibers and artificial adhesives.

Another evaluation in 2021 decided that the top of one of many specimens was a deteriorated llama braincase. While debunking the rivalry that the mummies had been extraterrestrials, the researchers expressed marvel as to how the specimens had been made centuries in the past, showing to be “constructions of very high quality.”

Elda Cantúand Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting.