Case file · High strangeness
Paracas elongated skulls
Strikingly long skulls from Peru's Paracas culture were promoted online as non-human, with claims of 'unknown' DNA.
2014 CE · -13.83, -76.25 · status: explained
The account
The Paracas culture (about 800 BCE–100 CE) on Peru's south coast practised head binding, and its cemeteries held hundreds of elongated skulls. In 2014 promoters announced preliminary DNA results said to show mutations 'unknown in any human'; no peer-reviewed study followed.
The sceptical view
Artificial cranial deformation, done by binding a baby's head, is documented worldwide; the skulls' volume and anatomy are human, and the DNA claims were never published or replicated.