On this page:
- The differences between M-type and human mummies are all modifications that would be easy to make, with none that would be hard to make
- Elongated skull is similar to artificial cranial deformation, which was historically practiced in the region
- Maria has plump facial features that in a real mummy would be desiccated, so they are probably molded onto the skull
- The diatomaceous earth covering her is more finely ground than is found naturally and was apparently applied as a slurry to set like concrete, probably to disguise the modifications
- She could not stand or walk because her feet have no calcaneal tuberosity, probably because tendons removed with her toes attach there
- Her feet and hands have bones, articulation surfaces, and tendons required for 5 fingers toes, indicating she used to have 5 but 2 were removed
- Her two distal phalanges on the hand come from a different individual than the rest of her hand, according to DNA testing
- Wawita is a toddler presented on The Alien Project website as an another anomaly but is acknowledged to have been modified in similar ways to Maria
Hybrids?
The Alien Project refers to these specimens as hybrids, which I interpret to mean humans genetically altered with non-human DNA via genetic engineering, or via breeding.
These mummies are in the same huddled pose as ancient and entirely human bodies found in Peru, with the distinct difference that human mummies are not covered in diatomaceous earth, which is said to have been used on the Nazca mummies to desiccate the bodies. While this may be true, it also has the effect of acting like a kind of plaster or cement to hold the body together as well as obscuring any cuts or damage to the skin.
These mummies are in the same huddled pose as ancient and entirely human bodies found in Peru, with the distinct difference that human mummies are not covered in diatomaceous earth, which is said to have been used on the Nazca mummies to desiccate the bodies. While this may be true, it also has the effect of acting like a kind of plaster or cement to hold the body together as well as obscuring any cuts or damage to the skin.
Unique features or easy modifications?
Remember, we need to rule out the mundane explanations for the unique features of the M-type mummies. If we can't do that, then while they could still be alien (anything could be alien, after all), they could also be mundane, therefore the mundane explanation can't be ruled out and Ockham's razor leads us to the more parsimonious conclusion: that the M-type's unique features are hoaxed.
The first thing to note about M-type mummies is that all the unique features are things that could be easily modified from a normal human mummy, and none are things that could not be easily modified. (By "easily", I don't mean some skill wasn't involved.) This is a convenient coincidence, if nothing else.
The first thing to note about M-type mummies is that all the unique features are things that could be easily modified from a normal human mummy, and none are things that could not be easily modified. (By "easily", I don't mean some skill wasn't involved.) This is a convenient coincidence, if nothing else.
Elongated skull
Artificial cranial deformation (ACD), although rare today, has been practiced in many cultures from China to Peru, for many thousands of years. Reasons included as a sign of social status or of intelligence.
Skull elongation is just one form of ACD, achieved by binding the baby's head before the skull sutures close. Maria is said to have no sagittal suture. This suture is usually fused in humans by middle age, but modifying the skull by force causes all the sutures to close in unnatural ways. This article gives a good overview of how elongated skulls have been misrepresented as alien. Friess & Baylac (2020) found no difference in cranial capacity between deformed and non-deformed skulls. While Maria is claimed to have a 19% increase in cranial capacity, this is a deceptive statement. When stating that something is outside the norm, you have to state the range of the norm. The average human cranial capacity is 1400cc, but varies from 900 to 2000cc, with 90% falling within the range 1040-1595cc. Maria's cranial capacity is not stated but if it's 19% larger than the average, this is well within normal limits. This article discusses the elongated skulls (pictured) found in the 1920s by Peruvian archeologist Julio Tello. While it's possible the M-types have naturally elongated skulls because they're aliens, the mundane explanation of ACD cannot be ruled out. |
Facial features
Most of the analysis of the M-type mummies focuses on Maria. She has enlarged eye sockets, slanted (and asymmetrical) eyelids, a tiny but regularly shaped nose, protruding lips, and no ears.
She is supposedly an unmodified, desiccated body. It's clear that her limbs and torso are desiccated - yet her fleshy eyelids, nose tip, and lips failed to desiccate. How is this possible? Footage and photos of Maria do not show damage to these areas from sampling, so it appears they have not been tested to see if they're made of her own flesh or something else. While it's possible Maria's inhuman eyelids are an alien feature, the mundane explanation that they (along with her lips and nose) are molded onto the skull can't be ruled out. |
Diatomaceous earth
The Alien Project website includes a presentation by Galetskiy Dmitriy Vladislàvovich in Peru (2018) who states the diatomaceous earth has "undergone a technological treatment" and is ground finer than is naturally found. [Scroll down to video, starts 4:00] Its purpose is said to be to protect the mummies.
Maria is described as being coated in fine powder but that's not quite true. The powder can't be dusted off - it's set hard. Closer inspection seems to show the finely ground powder was made into a slurry or paste and painted on. This of course hides any damage to her skin, including where the ears were cut off, and other skull modifications. While it's possible the diatomaceous earth was ground fine and used by ancient humans to preserve the "hybrid" mummies, the mundane explanation that it was applied as a paste to hide modifications cannot be ruled out. |
Feet
Anatomical note: The anatomy of our ape-like ancestors changed drastically when we began walking upright. Maria's limbs, hips, spine, ribs, and shoulders are identical to ours - yet her foot anatomy proves she could not walk upright. Biologically, this is nonsensical. While the Alien Project website wows you with uncommented animated CT scans, what it does not have is a detailed analysis of Maria's hands and feet by an anatomist - along with the consequences of her odd anatomy. Diving into those details is necessary to show the modifications that were made.
A distinct feature of Maria's foot is that her heel has no calcaneal tuberosity - the large bulge on the back of the heel bone where the Achilles tendon (along with other ligaments and muscles) attaches.
At the Mexican UAP hearing in Nov 2023, Dr Edgar Martin Hernandez (Oral and Maxillofacial Radiologist/Anatomist) admitted: "Maria could not stand upright as we do, but would lean forward when standing or walking." That's an understatement. The heel tuberosity takes most of our body weight when standing and walking. Without it, Maria falls backwards unless she pitches forward while walking and standing. Oddly, the anatomy of her entirely human torso, which defines her center of gravity, does not take this odd gait into account. As recently as at least Nov 2023, The Alien Project had a graphic and video presentation claiming that because Maria's heel bone lacks this bulge, her Achilles tendon attaches to the talus instead [Wayback machine]. Currently (Jul 2024) the graphic and video have been removed (did they change their mind?) and only animated CT scans of the foot remain - with no mention in the text of her wonky heel or impossible posture. |
Can we rule out mundane explanations for Maria's odd heel anatomy? If she is a modified human, why would her calcaneal tuberosity be carved away? Here's a possible reason:
Every tendon and ligament in the complicated structure of a human foot has specific origin and attachment points on the bones of the toes, ankle, and leg. As an example, the abductor hallucis goes from the big toe to the heel bone. When the big toe is cut off, that muscle has to go, too. But scraping it off the calcaneal tuberosity is going to leave a mark. The solution? Carve away the calcaneal tuberosity, too, and reattach the Achilles tendon elsewhere. |
There is only one 2D scan on The Alien Project website, and it's this small composite image. A simple hi-res x-ray of her feet - to count the bones and examine their location, shape, and articulation surfaces - seems like an egregious omission. Instead, we have flashy animated 3D CT scans that are hard for the layman to interpret because instead of showing the entire bone shape at once, they show slices that display a different shape depending on where the cross-section was taken.
Working with the one foot scan we're given, there may be clues to her mangled feet.
1. The navicular bone has three articulation surfaces for the three cuneiform bones in our feet, including the one that articulates with the big toe. In Maria's foot, her navicular bone appears to still have all three articulation surfaces (white arrows; same on the other foot, but it's less clear) and all three cuneiform bones even though she has no big toe. If her foot naturally has only three toes, the navicular should articulate with only two cuneiforms. It seems like her big toe was cut off and then the bones squished together - you can see the articulations with the metatarsals are not congruent (green arrow).
2. Looking at the cuboid bone (blue in the diagram below), in our foot it articulates with five adjacent bones, which is why it's shaped exactly the way it is. Anteriorly it articulates with the 4th and 5th metatarsals, so it has two distinct articulation surfaces. Maria's doesn't have a 5th metatarsal (little toe)... yet her cuboid bone still has the articulation surface for it (red line in the diagram, red arrow on the x-ray).
1. The navicular bone has three articulation surfaces for the three cuneiform bones in our feet, including the one that articulates with the big toe. In Maria's foot, her navicular bone appears to still have all three articulation surfaces (white arrows; same on the other foot, but it's less clear) and all three cuneiform bones even though she has no big toe. If her foot naturally has only three toes, the navicular should articulate with only two cuneiforms. It seems like her big toe was cut off and then the bones squished together - you can see the articulations with the metatarsals are not congruent (green arrow).
2. Looking at the cuboid bone (blue in the diagram below), in our foot it articulates with five adjacent bones, which is why it's shaped exactly the way it is. Anteriorly it articulates with the 4th and 5th metatarsals, so it has two distinct articulation surfaces. Maria's doesn't have a 5th metatarsal (little toe)... yet her cuboid bone still has the articulation surface for it (red line in the diagram, red arrow on the x-ray).
A human-like being that evolved (or was engineered) to have only three digits would have differently shaped bones throughout the entire foot and hand because of the reduced number of articulation surfaces. Instead, Maria has the same bones and bone shapes that we do. A nice clear x-ray image would eliminate the ambiguity, so we should be asking: Why doesn't The Alien Project provide such an image along with analysis from an expert (which I am not)? Why do they prefer to maintain the ambiguity? X-rays are CHEAP!!
This report by Antoine Bruno and Michel Ribardière claims Maria's toes are bent at 90 degrees because she "rested on this surface as well as on the heel", in other words they help her balance because she has no calcaneal tuberosity. Yet Montserrat (below) does have a complete heel bone and also has bent toes, rendering their argument nonsensical.
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While it's possible a human/alien hybrid would have identical midfoot bones to humans despite two fewer toes (anything goes, right? it's alien!!), the mundane explanation that Maria's toes have been amputated cannot be ruled out.
Hands
As with the J-type mummies, a hand without an opposable digit cannot grip effectively. Most primates have opposable thumbs (great apes have opposable big toes, too) - it evolved millions of years ago.
The palm is also important for gripping, and it serves to bind the metacarpals together, to protect them. Each metacarpal of Maria's hand hangs unprotected off her wrist bones. It wouldn't take much to seriously damage those fingers.
It's hard to imagine how Maria's species evolved beyond the most basic tool use. And if she's a "future human" or some sort of enhanced hybrid, it's hard to explain why she'd evolve less useful appendages (liabilities, in fact) than her ancestors.
If Maria's hands were modified post-mortem to create tridactyl hands with an extra phalanx, this diagram shows what may have been done:
The palm is also important for gripping, and it serves to bind the metacarpals together, to protect them. Each metacarpal of Maria's hand hangs unprotected off her wrist bones. It wouldn't take much to seriously damage those fingers.
It's hard to imagine how Maria's species evolved beyond the most basic tool use. And if she's a "future human" or some sort of enhanced hybrid, it's hard to explain why she'd evolve less useful appendages (liabilities, in fact) than her ancestors.
If Maria's hands were modified post-mortem to create tridactyl hands with an extra phalanx, this diagram shows what may have been done:
It's also possible the entire hand was constructed separately and grafted on at the wrist. The Alien Project claims she has no metacarpals, only phalanges, and that the proximal phalanx is proportionally shorter than in humans.
Steve Mera and Barry Fitzgerald from the Birmingham UFO Group (UK) visited Peru and examined Maria. They took DNA samples from her fingers which found "a mutation in the heteroplasmy (the presence of more than one type of organellar genome within a cell or individual)" [Phenomena Magazine #112, Aug 2018, p. 15]. Mera explains this more clearly in a recent video: Maria's last two distal phalanges are from a different individual than the rest of her hand.
Again, a simple cheap x-ray would help clarify the state of Maria's hand bones, but that didn't go so well for The Alien Project when they x-rayed their disembodied giant hands. Perhaps that's why they only include yet more of those flashy animated 3D scans designed to impress you even though you don't understand them.
Nevertheless, the CT scans on The Alien Project - and even a photo of Maria - do seem to show Maria's two distal phalanges don't articulate well (red arrows). At the time this scan was done, those phalanges had broken off on her right hand at what would have been a weak spot. However, the GaiaTV report shows that finger was intact in 2017, and it seems clear the last two phalanges are too thick to match her hand, indicating they come from another individual.
Steve Mera and Barry Fitzgerald from the Birmingham UFO Group (UK) visited Peru and examined Maria. They took DNA samples from her fingers which found "a mutation in the heteroplasmy (the presence of more than one type of organellar genome within a cell or individual)" [Phenomena Magazine #112, Aug 2018, p. 15]. Mera explains this more clearly in a recent video: Maria's last two distal phalanges are from a different individual than the rest of her hand.
Again, a simple cheap x-ray would help clarify the state of Maria's hand bones, but that didn't go so well for The Alien Project when they x-rayed their disembodied giant hands. Perhaps that's why they only include yet more of those flashy animated 3D scans designed to impress you even though you don't understand them.
Nevertheless, the CT scans on The Alien Project - and even a photo of Maria - do seem to show Maria's two distal phalanges don't articulate well (red arrows). At the time this scan was done, those phalanges had broken off on her right hand at what would have been a weak spot. However, the GaiaTV report shows that finger was intact in 2017, and it seems clear the last two phalanges are too thick to match her hand, indicating they come from another individual.
Too many bones?
As with Maria's foot, there are indications in her hand anatomy that her thumb and pinkie were amputated. 1. Dr Julien Benoit (Wits University, Johannesburg) gives his speciality as osteology using CT scans. He made a 3D model of Maria's hand reconstructed from the available CT scans and discovered she has the remains of all 5 tendons in her wrist, where she should have only 3. If her hand had been mutilated in life or soon after death, the 1st and 5th tendon would have retracted. Since they are not retracted, Benoit concludes the mutilation was done some time after death (including the possibility it was done 1000+ years after death). 2. Our wrists have 8 pebble-like bones (each with a distinctive shape) arranged in two rows of 4. As this comparison image shows, Maria has the same 4 bones as a normal human in the top row - including the trapezium (yellow) which articulates with the first metacarpal (thumb). The bone has been pushed forward but it is present - and should not be, in a species with no thumb. (Benoit has colored only 7 of the 8 bones, omitting the tiny pisiform on the lower row. This bone may in fact be missing in Maria, as one of its purposes is attachment of the abductor digiti minimi muscle - which, as its name suggests, moves the little finger. Maria doesn't have a little finger, so she doesn't need that muscle or bone.) |
In summary: While it's possible a "hybrid" or alien being with internal and external anatomy otherwise identical to a human might have these specific differences, the mundane explanation of amputations and remodeling the skull can't be ruled out.
Weird fingerprints?
This article cites attorney Josh McDowell claiming Maria has "not traditional human fingerprint patterns" because the lines are almost straight rather than the circular arrangement of loops and spirals that we humans have. The image at right is used in the article - a photo of Santiago's toes, though the article consistently refers to fingerprints.
In this video (from 9:10) we see Dr Tello remarking that Maria has horizontal rather than elliptical "fingerprints" but he is examining one of her (broken-off) toes. Not her fingers. So, we don't yet have information about the fingerprints of these mummies, only the toes. Are the toeprints unusual? Take a look at the two feet below (found from a Google search). While the big toeprints may have curves and whorls - remember, these mummies have no big toes - the other toeprints in these images vary from vertical (left) to horizontal (right). See also the inked toeprints from Yambay et al (2019). It seems Maria's and Santiago's toeprints are nothing out of the ordinary, after all. |
Spine
The Alien Project cannot decide how many vertebrae Maria has. This description gives 25 mobile vertebrae (compared to a human's 24 mobile vertebrae in a total of 33, the last 9 being fused). Another description on the website, repeated on this page: "Its spine has 26 bones, whereas 32 bones for Homo Sapiens." I think it's safe to say the people studying Maria don't know how to count vertebrae.
Montserrat
Montserrat is another female mummy, "found" in early 2024 - a little smaller than Maria, and pregnant. She has only 4 phalanges per hand, unlike Maria's 5. And her heel bones have the calcaneal tuberosity that Maria is lacking, which means (if she was born that way) her toe, foot, and leg muscles attach in different places from Maria's.
Monserrat has random metal implants which serve no apparent purpose. Anyone with a passing knowledge of biology should understand that these differences make Montserrat a different species from Maria. Yet nobody on Maussan's team seems to have noticed. On the other hand, if we're going to assume the superior race of aliens (or whoever) that genetically engineered these two mummies simply liked a little variety in their creations (a bigger heel and fewer phalanges in this case), we have ourselves an unfalsifiable hypothesis, since any evidence suggesting mutilation can be handwaved away. Who are we to criticize the genetic technology of unknown aliens meddling with our genes 1000+ years ago? |
While it's possible that Montserrat is yet another new human-like species with tridactyl hands, the mundane explanation that she was created like Maria, by mutilators who'd had an additional 7 years to hone their craft, can't be ruled out.
A Word about Wawita
The mummy researchers on Maussan's team have admitted Wawita is a modified young child (although they claim it was done in ancient times). Wawita has lesions on his body, fractured vertebrae, and the skin is removed from his skull. His tridactyl hands show clear evidence that his fingers were cut off.
The Alien Project offers no explanation for why they are promoting a fake tridactyl mummy. While it's possible Maria is not fake despite her similar appearance and provenance to the faked Wawita, the mundane explanation that Wawita is simply a less skilfully created fake cannot be ruled out. |
More M-types
Rafael is Monserrat's fetus and it's unclear if it is tridactyl. Sebastian and Earl are toddler tridactyl hybrids, also with only 4 phalanges. Given the improving skills of the hoaxers, it's entirely possible they would eventually figure out how to dissect the hands and feet of fetuses in the womb. That diatomaceous earth covers up any cuts to the mother's body.
Are we done talking about mutilated babies?
Are we done talking about mutilated babies?
Reference
Yambay, D. et al. (2019). "A Feasibility Study on Utilizing Toe Prints for Biometric Verification of Children." 12th IAPR International Conference On Biometrics.
Yambay, D. et al. (2019). "A Feasibility Study on Utilizing Toe Prints for Biometric Verification of Children." 12th IAPR International Conference On Biometrics.
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© Charlie Wiser 2024. Material is reproduced for research, study, criticism, review, parody and satire under The Copyright Act 1968 fair dealing exception to copyright infringement.