UFOs and aliens are once again in the headlines this week.
Unfortunately, this is not because a mothership landed on the White House lawn, but because NASA released a long-awaited report, published by the independent study group commissioned by the agency to study the unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). UAP is the new term for UFOs, which includes not only unexplained things in the air but also in space, underwater and everywhere in between.
However, the release of NASA’s first UFO report wasn’t the only story about possible non-human life forms to make headlines this week. According to Reuters, lawmakers in Mexico heard testimony this week about the presence of alien life on Earth that included two “extraterrestrial corpses.” These alleged alien corpses looked “white and similar to stereotypical representations of aliens: big head, small body, three toes,” NPR reported.
The alleged alien mummies (well, the creepy ones… whatever they are) were shown by Jaime Maussan, a long-time UFO personality with a history of mystifying supposed non-human remains. Despite that of Maussan history of falsification of alien corpses and mummiesthe story has now gotten big — so big, in fact, that it was brought up during NASA’s briefing on the new UAP report that took place on Thursday (September 14).
Related: NASA UFO report finds no evidence of “extraterrestrial origin” for UAP sightings
During Thursday’s briefing, BBC News Digital journalist Sam Cabral asked whether or not NASA has been in contact with Mexican authorities regarding “the rather sensational revelations” regarding the alleged alien mummies. In response, NASA UAP Study Group Chairman David Spergel responded that if there is evidence of alien remains, then those in possession of the material should make it publicly available for study.
“When unusual things happen, you need to make the data public,” Spergel said. “I think NASA has one of the most valuable samples from space – the moon rocks – what do we do? We make them available to any scientists who want to work on this.
“We don’t know the nature of the samples that were displayed before them,” Spergel added. “If I were the Mexican government, if I could make a recommendation to the Mexican government – that’s not our job here, we’re doing it for NASA – my recommendation [would be]: If you find something strange, make the samples available to the global scientific community and we’ll see what’s there.”
Dan Evans, assistant deputy associate administrator for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, chimed in to add that the primary purpose of NASA’s UAP study team is to dispel the kind of sensationalism and pseudoscience displayed to Mexican lawmakers this week.
“I will simply add that one of the main goals of what we are trying to do here today, is to move conjecture and conspiracies towards science and sanity,” Evans said. “And you do it with data, as David says, and that’s the purpose of this study.”
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Apparently, Maussan has a history of dealing fake alien remains. Micah Hanks, editor of The Debrief and longtime UAP researcher, says the latest hoax about Maussan’s alien body is “unfortunately not the first time this kind of thing has happened.”
In 2015, Maussan hosted an event in Mexico City to mark the release of a blurry photograph depicting what appeared to be the remains of a small, mummified humanoid alien. “However, once clear copies of the image were circulated online within hours of their unveiling at the event, it was quickly established that the image actually depicted historical remains belonging to an indigenous American child who, decades ago, had been exhibited for a time in a museum,” Hanks told Space.com. “Some of those involved issued a public apology at the time due to the child’s remains being misrepresented in this way.”
It’s unclear what these newer “alien mummies” might be, but an analysis of their physiology posted on social media suggests they were assembled from parts of various mammals such as llamas.
As reported by Reuters, some of the other alleged alien corpses that Maussan has presented over the years have turned out to have been cobbled together from the remains of mummified children.