The apparent rib count deficit makes it fascinating. Undoubtedly part of the reason this entity came to the fore was the undeniable fact that it is quite strange.

Since human skeletal abnormalities are not my expertise, I sought opinions from an anatomist and someone who researches human developmental genetics. Let me emphasize that the only data they had to go on was the report and essay Dr. Greer posted.

The genetics person indicated such a condition has been observed, although less than 1% of cases in her database if I recall the numbers correctly. She is seeking an opinion of an expert pathologist on the matter, but I have nothing on his take as yet. The anatomist, whose research area is paleontology, basically said the same thing as Jack Brewer in his comment above; that any incompletely developed structures were highly likely to be lost since it seems the entity was a found object and not deliberately curated to preserve it. He seemed to feel the small amount of image evidence he could examine was more consistent with a human fetus than anything else. Take this information with the understanding that any errors are due to my paraphrasing and interpretation of their responses.

The good news is that there is plenty of material to analyze, meaning that it will be possible to make an informed decision as to the likely origin of the entity at some point. At the moment, no matter what people wish to believe the humanoid origin is, the laboratory work is incomplete. We will simply have to wait and see what Dr. Nolan and his collaborators reach as a final conclusion. I am confident he will do a creditable job.

The hypothesis of a Lilliputian human race rests on scant and flimsy evidence at this point. While that possibility remains open, proving it is true will be quite a feat and I wish Dr. Nolan the best of luck.

Ms. Pris, as I understand it, the lack of ribs may be due to the fetus had not yet formed them all:

http://paolov.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/atacama-alien-mystery/

Lance

The program included some of Ufology’s brightest stars with an overarching theme of forcing the government to tell us what they know. Read that last sentence carefully, it captures something about the focus; it is never clear precisely who knows what. Clearly, these faux hearings provided the ideal venue to supplant a vilified Congress and simply expose to the public directly the many facts suppressed by the authorities. However, instead of substantive revelations to drive the issues forward, these empty hearings only delivered another meaningless publicity event thinly disguised as a call for disclosure.

In aggregate, the show did expose something. The luminaries on the stage have not, alone or collectively, ever mustered unequivocal proof of anything despite decades of tail chasing effort. The final, unintended take-home message was simple – if any of our claims is ever going to be proved the government will have to come forward with the goods. We Ufologists have been abjectly impotent when it comes to producing any meaningful conclusions on our own.

Three years before Mr. Arnold reported flying saucers and the crash at Roswell, scientists published a paper implicating deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as the key hereditary material (1). At that time it was completely unclear how genetic information was coded and decoded in cells. If you read that paper you can get a sense of the controversy as the authors make a strong case for DNA while taking pains to acknowledge that their experiments still could not rule out protein contamination. Within another 10 years, DNA was firmly established as the informational molecule, its molecular structure had been solved (2) and productive hypotheses as to how it functioned mechanically were under investigation. After less than 30 years, scientists were cloning genes and manipulating living organisms with unprecedented power. Forty years later the complete human genome had been deciphered entirely. Today we are on the verge of astonishing technological and medical advances built on the fundamental knowledge of DNA and how it functions. A burgeoning collection of peer-reviewed publications, Nobel Prize awards and novel diagnostic and therapeutic interventions against diseases offer ample objective evidence of the many superb accomplishments for all humankind that all began when a handful of scientists coupled sharp eyes with good ideas. How far did Ufology progress in that same interval?

Being unable to book an expert guest to provide a hard fact-based balancing context to your parody was the ultimate symbolic symmetry. Maybe it is best to keep in mind that a ‘disclosure’ may also be an admission. Citizens, you are truly on your own.

1. O. T. Avery, C. M. Macleod and M. McCarty. 1944. Studies on the nature of the substance inducing transformation of pneumococcal types: Induction of transformation by a desoxyribonucleic acid fraction isolated from Pneumococcus Type III. Journal of Experimental Medicine 79:137-158.

2. J. D. Watson and F. H. Crick. 1953. Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribonucleic acid. Nature 171:737-738.