Gary Nolan entered into an agreement with the director’s of Sirius to study the presumed alien humanoid and determine its origin. Nolan decided to study the skeleton because he thought it may be a new primate species or a new type of human deformity. He revealed that he never believed it to be an alien.
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DNA was extracted from the bone marrow of the Skeleton’s ribs to conduct a genome sequence and then compared with the genomes of humans and primates. The result proved the skeleton to be a human and could have also been a fetus aged between 6 to 8 years old. Research also proved it had a rare bone disorder of ageing bones making it seem older than it actually was.
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The research continued for five years during which attempts were made to explain the small size of the skeleton and the abnormalities in its bones including the rib count. One author of the study, Dr Atul Butte was brought into the research team to evaluate the genome.
Seven genes revealed oddities and mutations which were found to be responsible for the bone abnormalities like scoliosis and skeletal dysplasia also called dwarfism.
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Other mutations were found in genes responsible for collagen, ribs, joints and arteries. The vast combination of genetic mutations together explained why Ata was so visibly deformed to look like an alien. What surprised the scientist was the presence of so many mutations existing in one specimen. According to Professor Butte, that was the biggest rarity present in Ata.
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