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The Starchild skull is an abnormal human skull allegedly found in Mexico. It is primarily notable due to claims by paranormal researchers that it is the product of extraterrestrial-human breeding. Mitochondrial DNA recovered from the skull establishes it as human.

Discovery

The starchild skull came into the possession of Ray and Melanie Young of El Paso, Texas, who entrusted it to Lloyd Pye in February 1999. 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 km) southwest of Chihuahua, Mexico, buried alongside a normal human skeleton that was exposed and lying supine on the surface of the tunnel.

Analysis

The skull is abnormal in several respects. A dentist determined, based on examination of the upper right maxilla found with the skull, that it was a child's skull, 4.5 to 5 years in age. However, the volume 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 at the bottom of the orbit instead of at 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.

Dating

Carbon 14 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 Miami, the largest radiocarbon dating laboratory in the world. Both tests provided results of 900 years ± 40 years since death.

DNA testing

DNA testing in 1999 at BOLD, a forensic DNA lab in Vancouver, British Columbia found standard X and Y chromosomes 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". Further DNA testing at Trace Genetics, which specializes in extracting DNA from ancient samples, in 2003 recovered mitochondrial DNA from both skulls. 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. The adult female belongs 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. 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 nuclear DNA or Y-chromosomal DNA of the father from the Starchild skull, despite conducting six consecutive tests.

Explanations

Potential explanations for the skull's unusual features, apart from the alien-hybrid hypothesis, include the use of cradle boarding on a hydrocephalic child, brachycephaly and Crouzon syndrome.

References

1. Pye, Lloyd 'Starchild Project'
2. Pye, Lloyd. "TERRIBLE TWO'S : Summary of the first Two Years". Starchild Project. Archived from the original on 2008-01-18. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
3. ^ McCoy, Max (November 1999). "Star Child". Fortean Times (127): 42–45.
4. Brown, Matthew. "A Report on Maxilla and Dental X-Rays". Starchild Project. Archived from the original on 2008-01-29. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
5. Robinson, Ted J. "A Preliminary Analysis of a Highly Unusual Human-Like Skull". Starchild Project. Archived from the original on 2008-01-27. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
6. (Pye, L. 2007, pp. 206-7 and p. 218)
7. http://www.theness.com/index.php/the-starchild-project/
8. Trace Genetics "Report on the DNA analysis from skeletal remains from two skulls"
9. Phoenix, Jack (Early 2005 (special)). "Unconvention 2004". Fortean Times (191): 28–30. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. Chow, Adelina (2006). "The Mystery of the Starchild Skull". World-Mysteries.com. Retrieved 2006-10-01.

• Extraterrestrial life
• UFO-related phenomena
• Skull
• Ancient astronaut speculation
• Pseudoarchaeology
• Human remains (archaeological)