The controversy surrounding the alleged "alien mummies" from Peru has taken a new turn, as experts weigh in with conflicting claims. In September 2023, UFO researcher Jaime Maussan sparked worldwide debate by presenting two purported "alien" corpses to Mexico's congress. Now, a recent fingerprint analysis has reignited the discussion.

Former Colorado prosecutor Joshua McDowell, along with three US forensic medical examiners, recently examined one of the specimens, named "María," in Peru. McDowell reported that María's fingerprints did not match known human patterns, lacking traditional loops or whorls. Instead, they appeared to have straight lines, which he deemed "very odd." The mummy was found covered in diatomaceous earth, a powdery substance composed of aquatic fossils.

"These were not traditional human fingerprint patterns," McDowell told DailyMail.com. "We did not see any loops or whorls on the prints of the fingers or on the toes." He emphasised that while these findings are intriguing, it would be "extremely premature" to make definitive statements about the mummies' nature.

However, these claims have been strongly contested by the scientific community. In January 2024, Flavio Estrada, a forensic archaeologist from Peru's Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, declared the mummies a fraud. Estrada stated that they were "dolls assembled with bones of animals from this planet, with modern synthetic glues," dismissing any extraterrestrial origin.

Mexican scientists also refuted Maussan's claims. A conference titled "Extraterrestrials or llama skeletons?" was held at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), featuring top-level scientists who criticised the presentation of these "mummies" in Congress as pseudoscience.

Dr. Alejandro Frank, a mathematical physicist, expressed disappointment that such "charlatan claims" were given a platform in the Mexican Congress, stressing the need to focus on real issues like climate change and pandemics. "What's at stake here is whether our country will bet on science or on superstitions and charlatanism," Frank said.

The controversy dates back to 2017 when officials from San Luis Gonzaga National University of Ica in Peru first announced the discovery. Since then, the debate has intensified, with Maussan claiming DNA analysis showed 29% of the mummies' genetic material doesn't belong to Earth's evolutionary chain.

Critics point out that elongated skulls, a feature of some specimens, are known to result from ancient head-binding practices in the region. Christopher Heaney, a Latin American historian, noted that such practices were observed by Spanish colonisers in the 16th century.

While McDowell's team calls for more sophisticated DNA and carbon dating studies, the scientific consensus largely dismisses these specimens as fabricated. The Peruvian Ministry of Culture, for its part, has decried the mummies as "man-made hoaxes."