The Starchild skull is a human child's skull that was abnormally shaped. The child likely died from a condition where fluid builds up in the brain from birth. The skull received a lot of public attention after a person named Lloyd Pye claimed it was from an extraterrestrial being.
Claims of Lloyd Pye
Pye said he received the skull from Ray and Melanie Young of El Paso, Texas, in February 1999. He claimed the skull was discovered around 1930 in a mine tunnel located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Chihuahua, Mexico. The skull was found buried next to a regular human skeleton that was exposed and lying face up on the tunnel floor. Pye stated that the skull belonged to a child with mixed traits, the result of a union between an extraterrestrial being and a human female.
Assessment of the evidence
A dentist who studied the upper right part of the skull found that the skull belonged to a child who was about 4.5 to 5 years old. The inside of the Starchild skull has a volume of 1,600 cubic centimeters, which is 200 cm³ larger than the average adult brain and 400 cm³ larger than an adult of similar size. The eye sockets are oval and shallow, with the canal that carries the optic nerve closer to the bottom of the socket than the back. There are no frontal sinuses. The back of the skull is flat. The skull is made of calcium hydroxyapatite, which is the typical material found in mammal bones.
Dr. Steven Novella, a neurologist from Yale University Medical School, explains that the skull shows signs of congenital hydrocephalus, a condition where fluid builds up in the brain. The changes in the shape of the skull are believed to be caused by this fluid buildup.
In 1999, DNA testing at BOLD, a forensic lab in Vancouver, British Columbia, found standard X and Y chromosomes in two samples taken from the skull. Dr. Novella says this proves the child was male and human, and that both parents were human because each contributed a sex chromosome.
In 2003, DNA testing at Trace Genetics, a lab that specializes in extracting DNA from ancient samples, identified mitochondrial DNA from the skull. The child belongs to haplogroup C. Since mitochondrial DNA is passed only from the mother, this test shows the child's mother was a human female from haplogroup C. However, the adult female found with the child belonged to haplogroup A. Both haplogroups are common among Native Americans, but the different haplogroups indicate the adult female was not the child’s mother.
Benjamin Radford, a paranormal researcher, notes that people often see things that are not immediately clear as mysterious or paranormal. He says science fiction ideas can be fun, but they should not replace the scientific facts and real significance of such discoveries.