--- title: Scientists Say 6-Inch Skeleton Ata Is a Human Girl description: Ata, a 6-inch-tall skeleton found in Chile in 2003, was originally thought to be an alien. But new research says it was a human girl. canonical: https://time.com/5210714/ata-six-inch-skeleton-human/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-22T17:00:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:57:58.938Z article:section: Science og:title: People Thought This 6-Inch-Tall Skeleton Was an Alien og:description: But new research says it was a human girl og:url: https://time.com/5210714/ata-six-inch-skeleton-human/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: People Thought This 6-Inch-Tall Skeleton Was an Alien twitter:description: But new research says it was a human girl twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Genetic Tests Reveal Six-Inch "Alien" Skeleton Is Actually a Human > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Mar 22, 2018 5:00 PM UTC  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Mar 22, 2018 5:00 PM UTC When a diminutive skeleton — measuring just six inches long, with a tiny, cone-shaped head and only 10 pairs of ribs — was discovered behind an abandoned church in the Atacama region of Chile in 2003, onlookers thought they might have stumbled across an alien. Fifteen years later, researchers have the DNA evidence to prove that the skeleton, nicknamed Ata, is of “purely earthly origin,” [a finding that was published Thursday](https://genome.cshlp.org/lookup/resid/gr.223693.117?view=abstract&uritype=cgi) in the journal _Genome Research._ Even still, plenty of questions remain unanswered. “We really haven’t see another child like that,” says Dr. Atul Butte, the director of the Institute for Computational Health Sciences at the University of California San Francisco and one of the researchers involved in the project. “Anything’s possible.”  Bhattacharya S et al. 2018 Using DNA extracted from Ata’s bone marrow, Butte and his colleagues were able to determine that the skeleton belonged to a human female with a mix of Native American and European heritage. They also found that the skeleton was likely less than 50 years old, and probably owed its weathered appearance to the harsh climate of the Chilean desert where it was found. From there, though, things got murky. Ata’s remarkably tiny size would suggest that she was a stillborn or a fetus, but bones in the skeleton’s hands — a body part commonly analyzed to estimate age — more closely resembled that of a 6- to 8-year-old child, Butte says. Genome sequencing also revealed a number of defects having to do with bone development and growth, some known and some novel, Butte adds. Despite the apparent age of the bones, “the severity of the other malformations — the head, the abnormal number of ribs, all of that — made us think that the child might not have lived very long or was never born,” Butte says. “That’s the guess. But it’s only a guess.” These unanswered questions are exactly what makes the project interesting, Butte says, adding that the complexity of the analysis has encouraged him to look beyond the obvious, even when it comes to more conventional cases. “In medicine we like to say the simplest explanation is probably the right one. But sometimes there is a complicated explanation,” Butte says. “This story started with people thinking this was an alien. Look how much detail we can figure out about this girl now, just from the DNA. It’s really interesting what you can learn.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5210714/ata-six-inch-skeleton-human/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5210714/ata-six-inch-skeleton-human/"},"headline":"Genetic Tests Reveal Six-Inch \"Alien\" Skeleton Is Actually a Human","datePublished":"2018-03-22T17:00:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:57:58.938Z","description":"Plenty of questions remain","url":"https://time.com/5210714/ata-six-inch-skeleton-human/","keywords":["DNA","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dna/","name":"DNA"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5210714/ata-six-inch-skeleton-human/","name":"Genetic Tests Reveal Six-Inch \"Alien\" Skeleton Is Actually a Human"}}]}] ```