As part of our seemingly never-ending quest to find out whether or not we're alone in the universe, us human beings have sometimes fallen into the trap of believing whatever we're told about so-called "alien life". One of the most prominent examples of this was a documentary made in 1995 that supposedly showed an "alien autopsy", and included testimonies from people who had apparently witnessed the crash-landing of a spaceship decades earlier.
Unsurprisingly, it later turned out to be a fake.
Now, another suspect video has emerged - and this one claims that scientists have found the mummified remains of a creature that is "not human". But how legitimate is it?
In the clip, which is available to view on YouTube, people appear to be examining a humanoid creature with three fingers on each hand and three toes on each foot. It has seemingly normal arms and legs and is pretty much proportional to a standard human being - albeit with much larger eye sockets than average.
"They appear human but they are not. Their anatomic structure is different," says Russian National Research University professor Konstantin Korotkov, who seems to be implying that the subject is legitimate. "Right now we are making a detailed analysis to see if the shape of the position of all the chromosomes, of all the amino acids, coincides with ours."
And it's not so hard to believe that this subject could be a real (but deformed) human being, as similar mummified bodies have been found in Peru, often in the same folded-up pose.
However, other people aren't convinced of the skeleton's authenticity.
Nigel Watson, the author of the UFO Investigations Manual isn't buying the mummy at all and believes the whole thing is a money-grabbing fake.
"I think the whole saga of finding these mummies is laughable and they are very probably fakes," he said. "The new evidence does indicate the Maria is human, the only strange thing is that she has an unusual rib structure. This is probably because she is a so-called bone montage made by fakers."
The fake could have been made deliberately for the documentary, or it could have been made as a joke and then was discovered by filmmakers who had no idea it wasn't real. Some have theorized that it was made some time ago as a tourist attraction, but it's also possible that it was assembled originally from human and animal parts, and has become naturally mummified over time.
"Those involved in ‘scientifically’ examining the mummies seem to believe they are ancient aliens, but they are suffering from the wish to believe," Watson added.
"It also doesn’t look good that this Earth-shattering news was originally fed to us via a website you have to subscribe to, rather than through officially recognized scientific channels," the author said. "At the end of the day, this is fake news delivered in a slick fashion to indulge our fascination with ancient aliens and UFOs."
So, once again, it seems that the internet has been conned by a few people who wanted to test the limits of human gullibility. Or, you know, maybe we haven't, and this could still turn out to be the real thing. But I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you.
