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{{short description|Archaeological find}}
{{refimprove|date=December 2010}}
] ]
The '''Starchild skull''' is an abnormal human ] allegedly found in ]. It is primarily notable due to claims by ] researchers that it is the product of extraterrestrial-human breeding. ] recovered from the skull establishes it as human. The '''Starchild skull''' is part of a malformed ] of a child who likely died as a result of ]. It received widespread publicity after paranormalist ] claimed it was of extraterrestrial origin.


== Claims of Lloyd Pye ==
==Discovery==
The starchild skull came into the possession of Ray and Melanie Young<ref></ref> of ], who entrusted it to ] in February 1999.<ref name=starchild_background>{{cite web |last=Pye |first=Lloyd |title=TERRIBLE TWO'S : Summary of the first Two Years |work=Starchild Project |url=http://www.starchildproject.com/BackgroundTT.html |accessdate=2009-08-26 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080118090039/http://www.starchildproject.com/BackgroundTT.html |archivedate = 2008-01-18}}</ref> Pye is a writer and lecturer in what he describes as the field of alternative knowledge. According to Pye, the skull was found around 1930 in a mine tunnel about 100 miles (160&nbsp;km) southwest of ], ], buried alongside a normal human skeleton that was exposed and lying ] on the surface of the tunnel.<ref name=Fortean_127>{{cite journal |last=McCoy |first=Max |title=Star Child |journal=] |issue=127 |pages=42–45 |date=November 1999}}</ref> Pye claimed to have obtained the skull from Ray and Melanie Young of ], in February 1999, stating that the skull was found around 1930 in a mine tunnel about 100 miles (160&nbsp;km) southwest of ], ], buried alongside a normal human skeleton that was exposed and lying ] on the surface of the tunnel.<ref name=Fortean_127>{{cite journal |last=McCoy |first=Max |title=Star Child |journal=] |issue=127 |pages=42–45 |date=November 1999}}</ref><ref name="Yorkshire Evening Post">{{cite news|title=Alien skull' star attraction at Leeds extra-terrestrial conference|url=http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/central-leeds/video_alien_skull_star_attraction_at_leeds_extra_terrestrial_conference_1_2216272|access-date=13 August 2011|newspaper=Yorkshire Evening Post|date=27 June 2009}}</ref>


Pye claimed the skull to be a hybrid offspring of an extraterrestrial and a human female.<ref name="Regal2009">{{cite book|author=Brian Regal|title=Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia: A Critical Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c6PACQAAQBAJ&pg=PA88|date=15 October 2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-35508-0|pages=88–}}</ref><ref name=Feder>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xmDnhPNLwYwC&pg=PA246 | title=Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum | access-date=March 17, 2011 | author=Feder, Kenneth L. | author-link=Kenneth Feder | year=2010 | publisher=ABC-CLIO| isbn=978-0313379185 }}</ref>
==Analysis==
The skull is abnormal in several respects. A dentist determined, based on examination of the upper right ] found with the skull, that it was a child's skull, 4.5 to 5 years in age.<ref name=starchild_dental>{{cite web |last=Brown |first=Matthew |title=A Report on Maxilla and Dental X-Rays |work=Starchild Project |url=http://www.starchildproject.com/Reports_Brown.html |accessdate=2009-08-26 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080129083454/http://www.starchildproject.com/Reports_Brown.html |archivedate = 2008-01-29}}</ref> However, the volume of the interior of the starchild skull is 1,600 cubic centimeters, which is 200&nbsp;cm³ larger than the average adult's brain, and 400&nbsp;cm³ larger than an adult of the same approximate size. The ]s are oval and shallow, with the ] canal situated at the bottom of the orbit instead of at the back. There are no ]es.<ref name=Fortean_127 /> The back of the skull is flattened. The skull consists of ], the normal material of ]ian bone.<!--why is this noteworthy?--><ref name=starchild_robinson>{{cite web |last=Robinson |first=Ted J. |title=A Preliminary Analysis of a Highly Unusual Human-Like Skull |work=Starchild Project |url=http://www.starchildproject.com/Reports_Robinson.html |accessdate=2009-08-26 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080127214216/http://www.starchildproject.com/Reports_Robinson.html |archivedate = 2008-01-27}}</ref>


== Assessment of the evidence ==
===Dating===
] was performed twice, the first on the normal human skull at the University of California at Riverside in 1999, and on the Starchild skull in 2004 at Beta Analytic in ], the largest ] laboratory in the world. Both tests provided results of 900 years ± 40 years since death.<ref>(Pye, L. 2007, pp. 206-7 and p. 218)</ref>{{full}}


A dentist who examined the upper right ] found with the skull determined that the skull was that of a child aged 4.5 to 5 years. The volume, however, of the interior of the Starchild skull is 1,600 cubic centimeters, which is 200&nbsp;cm³ larger than the average adult's brain, and 400&nbsp;cm³ larger than an adult of the same approximate size. The ]s are oval and shallow, with the ] canal situated closer to the bottom of the orbit than to the back. There are no ]es.<ref name=Fortean_127 /> The back of the skull is flattened.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} The skull consists of ], the normal material of ]ian bone.
===DNA testing===
] in 1999 at BOLD<!--what does the acronym stand for?-->, a ] DNA lab in ] found standard ] and ]s in two samples taken from the skull, "conclusive evidence that the child was not only human (and male), but both of his parents must have been human as well, for each must have contributed one of the human sex chromosomes".<ref name="Novella">http://www.theness.com/index.php/the-starchild-project/</ref> Further DNA testing at Trace Genetics, which specializes in extracting DNA from ancient samples, in 2003 recovered ] from both skulls. The child belongs to ]. Since mitochondrial DNA is inherited exclusively from the mother, it makes it possible to trace the offspring's maternal lineage. The DNA test therefore confirmed that the child's mother was a Haplogroup C human female. The adult female belongs to ]. Both haplotypes are characteristic ] haplogroups, but the different haplogroup for each skull indicates that the adult female was not the child's mother. Trace Genetics obtained nuclear DNA, which contains chromosomes from both the father and the mother, from the adult female, but was not able to recover useful lengths of ] or Y-chromosomal DNA of the father from the Starchild skull, despite conducting six consecutive tests.<ref></ref>


Neurologist ] of ] says that the cranium exhibits all of the characteristics of a child who has died as a result of ], and the cranial deformations were the result of accumulations of cerebrospinal fluid within the skull.<ref name=Feder /><ref name=NESS>{{cite web|last=Novella|first=Steven|author-link=Steven Novella|title=The Starchild Project|date=20 July 2009|url=http://www.theness.com/index.php/the-starchild-project/|publisher=The New England Skeptical Society|access-date=March 17, 2011}}</ref><ref name=roberts>{{cite book|title=The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us|last=Roberts|first=Alice|author-link=Alice Roberts|pages=87–88|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYg0CwAAQBAJ|publisher=Quercus|date=2015|isbn=978-1623658083}}</ref><ref name=feder>{{cite book|last=Feder|first=Kenneth L.|author-link=Kenneth Feder|title=Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum|date=2010|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlRz2symkAsC|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0313379192}}</ref><ref name="ProtheroCALLAHAN2017">{{cite book |author1=Prothero, Donald R. |author2=Callahan, Timothy D. |title=UFOs, Chemtrails, and Aliens: What Science Says | publisher= Indiana University Press|pages=113– |isbn= 978-0253027061|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DI8uDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA113|date=2017}}</ref>
===Explanations===
Potential explanations for the skull's unusual features, apart from the alien-hybrid hypothesis, include the use of ]ing on a ] child,<ref name=Fortean_191>{{cite journal |last=Phoenix |first=Jack |title=Unconvention 2004 |journal=] |issue=191 |pages=28–30 |date=Early 2005 (special)}}</ref> ] and ].<ref name=world-mysteries>{{cite web |last=Chow |first=Adelina |title=The Mystery of the Starchild Skull |publisher=World-Mysteries.com |year=2006 |url=http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_6achow.htm |accessdate=2006-10-01}}</ref>


] in 1999 at BOLD (]), a ] DNA lab in ], found standard ] and ]s in two samples taken from the skull. Novella considers this "conclusive evidence" that the child was both male and human, and that both of his parents must have been human in order for each to have contributed one of the human sex chromosomes.<ref name=NESS />
Early in 2010 the head of a large genetics lab in the U.S. contacted the Starchild Project to say he was willing to attempt to recover the Starchild Skull's nuclear DNA, which could not be recovered in 2003 by Trace Genetics. Trace Genetics had to use what was available then: long human-only primers made from many thousands of base pairs strung together. The new geneticist explained that he could use a modified "shotgun" technique to recover much shorter strings of as little as 200 to 500 base pairs long. Where primers are like a single bullet, the new technique is like a spray of shotgun pellets, giving a much better chance to hit a result. The geneticist was certain that if the skull’s nuclear DNA was still viable, then, human or not, he could recover it.


Further DNA testing in 2003 at Trace Genetics, which specializes in extracting DNA from ancient samples, isolated ] from the skull. The child belongs to ]. Since mitochondrial DNA is inherited exclusively from the mother, it makes it possible to trace the offspring's maternal lineage. The DNA test therefore confirmed that the child's mother was a Haplogroup C human female. However, the adult female found with the child belonged to ]. Both haplotypes are characteristic ] haplogroups, but the different haplogroup for each skull indicates that the adult female was not the child's mother.<ref name="Regal2009" /><ref name=Feder />
A sample of the Starchild Skull’s bone was provided, and in a few weeks the geneticist reported incredible results. Not only had he recovered substantial amounts of nuclear DNA, he had also made a historic discovery when he attempted to catalogue his results. The gel sheet below shows an unmistakable recovery of its nuclear DNA, showing more than a half-dozen strings between 1000 and 2000 base pairs long.


Paranormal researcher ] states that often "anything not immediately explainable or obvious is interpreted as a baffling mystery, often with paranormal connotations. ... Science fiction speculation is fun but should not eclipse the real science and significance of these stories".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Radford |first1=Ben |author-link=Benjamin Radford |title='Alien' Mummy Identified by DNA |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |date=2018 |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=10–11 |publisher=Committee for Skeptical Inquiry}}</ref>
Gel sheet showing the recovery of the Starchild Skull's Nuclear DNA


<gallery>
Whenever geneticists want to have an unknown sequence of DNA analyzed, they send it for analysis to the enormous genetic database located at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Maryland. That public-access database is a centralized repository of all the genomic data accumulated by U.S. government funded research, and it now covers every phylum on Earth, from various kinds of viruses and bacteria, to various kinds of crustaceans and fish, to all kinds of animals and plants, including primates and humans.
Hydrocephalus-baby.jpg|Young children with ] typically have an abnormally large head, as fluid pressure causes individual skull bones to bulge outward.
BR & Starchild skull.jpg|] examines a replica of the "Starchild Skull," claimed to be an alien/human hybrid, at the Roswell UFO festival
</gallery>


==See also==
Our geneticist sent several samples of the Starchild’s nuclear DNA to be compared with trillions of recorded sequences at the NIH. Below we see a report summary returned by the NIH Basic Logical Alignment Search Tool (BLAST).
* ]

* ]
BLAST report on one 265 base pair segment of the Starchild Skull's Nuclear DNA

In this report we see that one length of 265 base pairs from the Starchild Skull’s nuclear DNA matches perfectly with a part of a gene on human chromosome #1. This verifies that some of the nuclear DNA from the Starchild is from a human being.

In the next screen shot (below) a string of 342 base pairs recovered from the Starchild Skull was analyzed. This time the result reads: "No significant similarity found. For reasons why, click here.” Those “reasons why” are an automatically generated list of possible procedural errors designed to help geneticists check all possible flaws in their testing techniques. Our geneticist has verified his procedures and replicated his results, indicating that no such mistakes were made.

BLAST report on a 342 base pair segment of the Starchild Skull's Nuclear DNA

To have recovered a string of base pairs 342 nucleotides long with NO reference in the NIH database is astounding because it means there is NO known earthly corollary for what has been analyzed!

Please understand that these results have now been repeated and verified several times. Strings of Starchild DNA over 3000 base pairs long have failed to match with anything in the NIH database. Despite that, skeptics will be obligated by their positions to try to say it is some kind of genetic gibberish or a mistake made during the analysis process. Why? Because, in the words of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: “Every truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

Luckily, any protest can easily be overcome with continued repetition and reproduction of results, isolating more and more unique fragments to add to the library of data already being created from Starchild DNA.

Our geneticist is confident that complete confirmation will unfold over the following months as the Starchild Skull’s entire genome is recovered using advanced sequencing technology. Ultimately, he will be able to formally announce that he has absolute, ironclad proof that a significant part of the Starchild's genome cannot be found on Earth.



==References== ==References==
{{reflist|2}} {{reflist}}


==External links==
{{UFOs}}
* {{Skeptoid | id= 4144| number=144 | title=The Case of the Strange Skulls | date= March 10, 2009| last= | first= | access-date= |quote=The Starchild Skull}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Starchild Skull}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Starchild Skull}}
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Latest revision as of 02:40, 14 November 2023

Archaeological find
The Starchild skull

The Starchild skull is part of a malformed human skull of a child who likely died as a result of congenital hydrocephalus. It received widespread publicity after paranormalist Lloyd Pye claimed it was of extraterrestrial origin.

Claims of Lloyd Pye

Pye claimed to have obtained the skull from Ray and Melanie Young of El Paso, Texas, in February 1999, stating that the skull was found around 1930 in a mine tunnel about 100 miles (160 km) southwest of Chihuahua, Mexico, buried alongside a normal human skeleton that was exposed and lying face up on the surface of the tunnel.

Pye claimed the skull to be a hybrid offspring of an extraterrestrial and a human female.

Assessment of the evidence

A dentist who examined the upper right maxilla found with the skull determined that the skull was that of a child aged 4.5 to 5 years. The volume, however, of the interior of the Starchild skull is 1,600 cubic centimeters, which is 200 cm³ larger than the average adult's brain, and 400 cm³ larger than an adult of the same approximate size. The orbits are oval and shallow, with the optic nerve canal situated closer to the bottom of the orbit than to the back. There are no frontal sinuses. The back of the skull is flattened. The skull consists of calcium hydroxyapatite, the normal material of mammalian bone.

Neurologist Steven Novella of Yale University Medical School says that the cranium exhibits all of the characteristics of a child who has died as a result of congenital hydrocephalus, and the cranial deformations were the result of accumulations of cerebrospinal fluid within the skull.

DNA testing in 1999 at BOLD (Bureau of Legal Dentistry), a forensic DNA lab in Vancouver, British Columbia, found standard X and Y chromosomes in two samples taken from the skull. Novella considers this "conclusive evidence" that the child was both male and human, and that both of his parents must have been human in order for each to have contributed one of the human sex chromosomes.

Further DNA testing in 2003 at Trace Genetics, which specializes in extracting DNA from ancient samples, isolated mitochondrial DNA from the skull. The child belongs to haplogroup C. Since mitochondrial DNA is inherited exclusively from the mother, it makes it possible to trace the offspring's maternal lineage. The DNA test therefore confirmed that the child's mother was a Haplogroup C human female. However, the adult female found with the child belonged to haplogroup A. Both haplotypes are characteristic Native American haplogroups, but the different haplogroup for each skull indicates that the adult female was not the child's mother.

Paranormal researcher Benjamin Radford states that often "anything not immediately explainable or obvious is interpreted as a baffling mystery, often with paranormal connotations. ... Science fiction speculation is fun but should not eclipse the real science and significance of these stories".

  • Young children with hydrocephalus typically have an abnormally large head, as fluid pressure causes individual skull bones to bulge outward. Young children with hydrocephalus typically have an abnormally large head, as fluid pressure causes individual skull bones to bulge outward.
  • Benjamin Radford examines a replica of the "Starchild Skull," claimed to be an alien/human hybrid, at the Roswell UFO festival Benjamin Radford examines a replica of the "Starchild Skull," claimed to be an alien/human hybrid, at the Roswell UFO festival

See also

References

  1. ^ McCoy, Max (November 1999). "Star Child". Fortean Times (127): 42–45.
  2. "Alien skull' star attraction at Leeds extra-terrestrial conference". Yorkshire Evening Post. 27 June 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
  3. ^ Brian Regal (15 October 2009). Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia: A Critical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 88–. ISBN 978-0-313-35508-0.
  4. ^ Feder, Kenneth L. (2010). Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0313379185. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
  5. ^ Novella, Steven (20 July 2009). "The Starchild Project". The New England Skeptical Society. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
  6. Roberts, Alice (2015). The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us. Quercus. pp. 87–88. ISBN 978-1623658083.
  7. Feder, Kenneth L. (2010). Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0313379192.
  8. Prothero, Donald R.; Callahan, Timothy D. (2017). UFOs, Chemtrails, and Aliens: What Science Says. Indiana University Press. pp. 113–. ISBN 978-0253027061.
  9. Radford, Ben (2018). "'Alien' Mummy Identified by DNA". Skeptical Inquirer. 42 (4). Committee for Skeptical Inquiry: 10–11.

External links

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