A close encounter with the 'alien bodies' in Mexico

 

MEXICO CITY, Sept 16 (Reuters) - For Jaime Maussan, a Mexican journalist and longtime UFO enthusiast, they are one of the most important discoveries in the history of humankind. 

But for many scientists, these two tiny mummified bodies with elongated heads and three fingers on each hand, images of which were beamed around the world this week when they were presented to Mexico's Congress, are an already-debunked - perhaps criminal - stunt. 

At Maussan's office, in the Mexico City business district of Santa Fe, staff members carefully carry the two closed boxes with glass lids containing the bodies into a green-screened studio, where Reuters had exclusive access on Friday. Everyone huddles around to get a better look. 

The bodies appear ancient and share characteristics with humans: two eyes, a mouth, two arms, two legs. 

Maussan claims they were found around 2017 in Peru, near the pre-Columbian Nazca Lines. He says he can prove they are unlike anything known on Earth.

On social media and in the hearing, he shared scientific analysis and study results he argues proves the bodies are about 1,000 years old and not related to any known Earthly species. 

One of them, described by Maussan as a female, was discovered to have eggs inside, he said.

"It is the most important thing that has happened to humanity," Maussan, 70, said of his crusade to bring awareness to the findings, sitting in his office that is heavily decorated with colorful alien-themed artwork and paraphernalia.

"I believe that this phenomenon is the only one that gives us the opportunity to unite," he added. Elsa Tomasto-Cagigao, a respected Peruvian bio-anthropologist, is frustrated such claims are still being given publicity, citing similar alleged finds that were found to be frauds. 

"What we said before still stands, they are presenting the same rehash as always and if there are people that keep believing that, what can we do?," she said by phone.

"It is so crass and so simple that there is nothing more to add." Previous such finds have been dismissed by the scientific community as mutilated mummies of pre-Hispanic children, sometimes combined with bits of animal parts. 

David Spergel, former head of Princeton University's astrophysics department and chair of a NASA report into unidentified anomalous phenomena, said on Thursday that such samples should be made available for testing by the world's scientific community.