'Aliens' which sparked global debate by Mexican Congress are actually dolls, say Peru scientists
Two doll-like figures and an alleged three-fingered hand that were seized by customs authorities in Peru, have been dismissed as "not alien" by scientists.
Picked up in a shipment headed to Mexico last year, forensic experts have determined that the objects were made with paper, glue, metal and human and animal bones.
It comes after Mexico's congress sparked international debate after hearing testimony purporting to show the existence of extraterrestrial life.
The findings quash some people’s belief that the figures come from an “alien centre or come from another planet, all of which is totally false,” said forensic archaeologist Flavio Estrada, who led the analysis.
“The conclusion is simple: they are dolls assembled with bones of animals from this planet, with modern synthetic glues, therefore they were not assembled during pre-Hispanic times,” Estrada told reporters.
"They are not extraterrestrials; they are not aliens.”
The prosecutor’s office has not yet determined who owns the objects.
Previously, English Physicist Professor Brian Cox weighed in on the debate, writing on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the remains were "way too humanoid".
Officials on Friday would only say that a Mexican citizen was the intended recipient of the objects before they were seized by customs agents in October.
Mexican journalist José Jaime Maussan and some Mexican lawmakers became the subject of international ridicule in September when he went before the country's congress to present two boxes with supposed mummies found in Peru.
He along with others claimed they were “non-human beings that are not part of our terrestrial evolution.”
In November, Maussan returned to Mexico’s congress with a group of Peruvian doctors and spent more than three hours pressing the case for “non-human beings” that he said were found in Peru, where he made similar claims in 2017.
A report by the Peruvian prosecutor’s office that year found that alleged alien bodies were actually “recently manufactured dolls, which have been covered with a mixture of paper and synthetic glue to simulate the presence of skin.”
“They are not the remains of ancestral aliens that they have tried to present,” the 2017 report stated.
Experts on Friday showed reporters a couple of two-foot-long dolls dressed in red, orange and green clothes.
They said examinations showed the bones of birds, dogs and other animals were used to create the dolls.
Meanwhile, an alleged three-finger hand was subjected to X-ray examinations. Estrada said the “very poorly” built hand was created with human bones.
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