Afterwards, he criticised the event. “My testimony centred on sharing my experience,” he said on X, formerly Twitter. He added: ”But I am deeply disappointed by this unsubstantiated stunt.”
E.T. as we know him from the movie.Credit: Universal
Maussan was invited by an MP, Sergio Gutiérrez Luna, who said he was interested in hearing different perspectives on a topic of wide interest.
“What we did here was an exercise in listening,” Luna, who belongs to the governing Morena party, told reporters after the presentation. “Learning about subjects, whatever they may be, is done by finding contrasting opinions.”
Still, Maussan’s presentation stunned many in scientific circles in Mexico. After images of the mummies began circulating, the Institute of Physics at NAUM released a statement making clear that its researchers had never examined the specimens themselves but had merely done carbon testing in 2017 on skin samples provided by a client.
The university lab that did the testing “disassociates itself from any use, interpretation or subsequent misrepresentation of the results it provides,” the institute said. “In no case do we draw conclusions about the origin of these samples.”
Similarly, Antígona Segura, one of Mexico’s top astrobiologists, questioned Maussan’s contentions. “These conclusions are simply not backed up by evidence,” said Segura, who collaborates with the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, a NASA initiative to search for life on distant worlds.
“The whole thing is very shameful.”
It was unclear how Maussan got the mummified specimens to Mexico from Peru, whether they are actually from Peru, or if his specimens are reproductions or different from other mummified remains previously said to be extraterrestrial, which are still in Peru.
But Peruvian news reports have suggested that Maussan got wind of some mummies in 2017 from a Peruvian tomb raider. Analysis of the specimens in question in Peru showed that they were manufactured using a combination of human and animal bones, vegetable fibres and synthetic adhesives.
Another analysis in 2021 determined that the head of one of the specimens was a deteriorated llama braincase. While debunking the contention that the mummies were extraterrestrials, the researchers expressed wonder as to how the specimens were made centuries ago, appearing to be “constructions of very high quality”.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.