The Starchild skull is an abnormally shaped human skull from a child who probably died due to a condition where fluid builds up in the brain, causing it to expand. It became widely known after paranormal researcher Lloyd Pye said it was from space.
Claims of Lloyd Pye
Pye stated that he received the skull from Ray and Melanie Young of El Paso, Texas, in February 1999. He said the skull was discovered around 1930 in a mine tunnel approximately 100 miles (160 km) southwest of Chihuahua, Mexico. The skull was found buried next to a regular human skeleton that was visible on the tunnel's surface, lying face up. Pye claimed the skull belonged to a child that is part extraterrestrial and part human.
Assessment of the evidence
A dentist who studied the upper right maxilla of the skull determined that the skull belonged to a child who was 4.5 to 5 years old. The inside of the Starchild skull has a volume of 1,600 cubic centimeters. This 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 where the optic nerve passes closer to the bottom of the socket than the back. There are no frontal sinuses. The back of the skull is flattened. The skull is made of calcium hydroxyapatite, the typical material found in mammalian bones.
Neurologist Steven Novella from Yale University Medical School states that the skull shows all the features of a child who died from congenital hydrocephalus, a condition caused by the buildup of cerebrospinal fluid inside the skull.
In 1999, DNA testing at BOLD, a forensic DNA lab in Vancouver, British Columbia, found standard X and Y chromosomes in two samples taken from the skull. Novella considers this "conclusive evidence" that the child was male and human, and that both parents were human, as each contributed one sex chromosome.
In 2003, DNA testing at Trace Genetics, a lab specializing in ancient DNA samples, identified mitochondrial DNA from the skull. The child belongs to haplogroup C. Mitochondrial DNA is inherited only from the mother, allowing scientists to trace maternal lineage. This test confirmed 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.
Paranormal researcher Benjamin Radford notes that often, things not immediately explainable are seen as mysterious, sometimes with paranormal ideas. He states that science fiction speculation is enjoyable but should not overshadow the scientific significance of these findings.