The Nazca “Tridactyl Mummies” explained

Three-fingered bodies from the Peruvian desert, presented to the Mexican and Peruvian congresses as non-human. The full story of the claims, the lab tests, the official rebuttals, Peru’s 2025 heritage registration and what remains disputed.

The idea in brief

Since 2017, a series of desiccated bodies covered in white powder has been presented to the public. They have three long fingers and three toes, and range from doll-sized to almost human-sized. Their supporters say they come from a cave or tomb in the desert between Nazca and Palpa in southern Peru, preserved in diatomaceous earth.

Jaime Maussan and allied researchers say they are a non-human species, possibly a reptilian or amphibian lineage, or hybrids, and call them “tridactyl” (three-fingered) beings. Critics, including Peruvian forensic experts and mummy specialists, say the small figures are assembled from human and animal bones and modern materials, and the larger ones are pre-Hispanic human mummies that have been altered.

The case sits where the non-human intelligence debate meets Peruvian archaeology, and it has become a legal and heritage issue as much as a scientific one.

History of the story

Early 2017. In February a crowdfunding campaign, “The Alien Project”, run by Thierry Jamin, promised DNA and radiocarbon tests on bodies and organs it said had been found in southern Peru in 2016, and pledged to be first to denounce any fraud. It raised about $42,000. Maussan then presented a body called “Maria” and smaller figures in Unearthing Nazca, a video series for the streaming platform Gaia. The bodies were said to have come from local huaqueros (tomb looters).
2017. A report by Peru’s prosecutor’s office stated that bodies promoted by Maussan were “recently manufactured dolls” covered with paper and synthetic glue to simulate skin.
January 2022. Peru’s Ministry of Culture placed two mummified individuals held by the Universidad Nacional San Luis Gonzaga in Ica (UNICA), later known as “María” and “Wawito”, under provisional heritage protection, citing their alteration and loss of archaeological context. The protection was extended in January 2024.
12 September 2023. At a hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena in Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies, Maussan displayed two small bodies in glass cases. He said radiocarbon testing at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) put them at about 1,000 years old and that about a third of their DNA was of “unknown origin”.
14 September 2023. UNAM republished a 2017 statement saying it had only radiocarbon-dated a sample sent to it and had drawn no conclusion about its origin. UNAM physicist Julieta Fierro said the university had never endorsed the claims.
October 2023. Peruvian customs at Lima airport seized two doll-like figures in a parcel addressed to a Mexican citizen.
7 November 2023. At a second Mexican hearing, doctors presented CT imaging that they said showed internal organs and eggs, and testified that the bodies had once been living organisms, while declining to certify that they were extraterrestrial. Maussan said: “None of the scientists say [the study results] prove that they are extraterrestrials, but I go further.”
12 January 2024. At a Ministry of Culture press conference, forensic archaeologist Flavio Estrada of the Public Ministry’s Institute of Legal Medicine presented his analysis of the seized figures. He described dolls made of animal and human bones joined with modern synthetic glue. One skull came from a four-legged mammal, and parts of the bodies were bird bones.
November 2024. Peruvian congressman Germán Tacuri organised a hearing in Peru’s Congress titled “Three-Digit Beings of Nazca”, at which, Maussan announced, a study of the bodies would be presented. Tacuri told the press he believed the bodies were real and that he hoped to build a tourist corridor around them.
April 2025. Following a technical report from its Ica office, which concluded they were archaeological objects, the Ministry of Culture entered María and Wawito in the National Register of Movable Cultural Property (records 402456 and 402457), under the category “mummies, bundles and bones”.
February 2026. In a public-information ruling, Peru’s Transparency Tribunal summarised the ministry’s position: the two individuals at UNICA are identified as pre-Hispanic and registered as national heritage, so no separate declaration is needed.

Key evidence cited by proponents

Imaging. CT and X-ray scans showing continuous skeletons, joints and internal structures, which proponents say make assembly from separate bones unlikely.
Biology. Testimony from doctors at the Mexican hearing that the bodies were once living organisms, including reports of internal organs and eggs.
DNA results. Samples sent to several labs, with reports that a large fraction of the sequences did not match known species; the “one-third unknown” claim.
Radiocarbon dates. UNAM’s radiocarbon result of around 1,000 years for a sample.
Consistent anatomy. Proponents argue that many specimens share the same three-fingered, three-toed body plan, which would be hard to fake repeatedly.
Preservation. The claim that the bodies were found in diatomaceous earth, a fine mineral powder that dries and preserves organic remains, explaining the white coating.

Who champions it

Jaime Maussan, a Mexican journalist and UFO researcher, has promoted the bodies since 2017, presented them at both Mexican hearings and has championed them in Peru.
Thierry Jamin and The Alien Project, which ran the 2017 crowdfunding campaign for DNA and radiocarbon testing and continues to publish its case online.
Gaia, Inc., which streamed Maussan’s Unearthing Nazca in 2017.
Germán Tacuri, the Peruvian congressman who organised the 2024 hearing and has said that “the extraterrestrial mummies of Nazca are real”.

The mainstream view, in fair depth

Two kinds of object. Physical anthropologist Guido Lombardi, an expert on Peruvian mummies and author of a handbook of mummy studies, sums up the expert view: the large bodies are pre-Columbian humans modified for commercial purposes, and the small ones are put together from bones. Reported alterations to an adult-sized mummy include amputating two fingers and toes on each limb and adding extra finger bones to lengthen the hands.
Assembly. The Peruvian forensic examination of the seized figures found mixed animal and human bones and modern adhesives. Critics argue that a radiocarbon date reflects only the age of the sampled bone or tissue, which can come from a looted ancient burial, not the date the figure was assembled.
DNA. “Unknown” sequences are typical of contaminated or degraded ancient samples and of incomplete reference databases, so a high share of unmatched reads is not evidence of a new species.
Imaging. CT scans show what is inside a body but cannot by themselves prove that it grew that way. Critics argue that careful assembly, coated in powder and glue, can produce continuous-looking structures.
Expert bodies. The World Committee on Mummy Studies rejected the bodies’ authenticity and called the campaign “an irresponsible organized campaign of misinformation”.
Lack of peer review and access. The key analyses have not appeared in established peer-reviewed journals with independent, unrestricted access to the specimens and a documented chain of custody.
Heritage and looting. Estrada and Lombardi stress that the case encourages huaqueo, the looting of pre-Hispanic tombs, and the trade in human remains, which are crimes in Peru. Estrada put it bluntly at the 2024 press conference: “Our cultures of the past made Machu Picchu, our cultures of the past made the Nazca Lines, they didn’t need any alien help to do it.”

The 2025 registration as cultural property is sometimes cited by both sides. Officially it classifies María and Wawito as archaeological, pre-Hispanic material that the state must protect. It does not endorse any claim that they are non-human.

Current state of research

Some bodies are in private hands; María and Wawito are held by the university in Ica. No independent, fully transparent, multi-laboratory study has been published in a mainstream peer-reviewed journal. Proponents continue to present imaging and DNA work in hearings, press conferences and online, and they ask for open access to the specimens. Critics say the forensic evidence on the seized dolls, and the documented alterations to the larger mummies, already settle the question. Peruvian legal scholars have examined how provisional heritage protection applies to the bodies (Lucerna Iuris, 2025).

Open questions

Will any independent laboratory get unrestricted access to a large specimen such as María, with a documented chain of custody, and publish full data?
Where exactly were the bodies found? A documented archaeological context, with photos and excavation records, is still missing.
Now that two of them are registered as Peruvian heritage, who decides what testing is allowed, and will the results be made public?
How many altered mummies and assembled figures are in circulation, and where did the original human remains come from?

Sources

Jaime Maussan: alien claims (Wikipedia, with references). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Maussan
Lagos, A. (2023). No, this is not an alien. Here’s why. Wired, 14 September 2023. https://www.wired.com/story/mexico-congress-aliens-fake/
Romano, A. (2023). The true story of the fake unboxed aliens is wilder than actual aliens. Vox. https://www.vox.com/culture/23875671/aliens-mexican-congress-real-or-hoax-peru-nazca-mummies-jaime-maussan-fraud-scam
“Aliens” found in Peru are actually dolls made of bones, forensic experts declare. CBS News, January 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/peru-dolls-are-not-aliens-forensic-experts-say/
Peru’s congress conducts hearing on alleged extraterrestrial “Nazca mummies”. The Jerusalem Post, 10 November 2024. https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/archaeology-around-the-world/article-828382
Tribunal de Transparencia y Acceso a la Información Pública, Resolución Nº 000792-2026-JUS/TTAIP-Segunda Sala (17 February 2026), on the Ministry of Culture’s file on “María” and “Wawito”. https://cdn.www.gob.pe/uploads/document/file/10034279/8179298-resolucion-n-000792-2026-jus-ttaip-segunda-sala.pdf
Protección provisional del patrimonio cultural… el caso de las momias de Nasca, Lucerna Iuris (2025). https://doi.org/10.15381/lucerna.n9.31548
The Alien Project (proponent website). https://www.the-alien-project.com/
UNESCO: Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700

The Nazca “Tridactyl Mummies”