A while back Karl Shuker posted a blog entry that repeated the story about a tiny human mummy uncovered at Casper, Wyoming that was supposed to have been an adult when it died because it had a full set of adult teeth. That is the standard story on the books but it is false.I wrote to Karl that the mummy had been the subject of an article in Persuit of which he was unaware. And it was not the mummy of an adult but a deformed foetus that very likely had never drawn breath. I mentioned that I had seen the X-rays of it as well. And so here is the illustration.
The first giveaway is that the poor creature had no brains to speak of; mostly an empty braincase (the X-ray seems to show packed dirt in that area.) And it did not have adult teeth, it had baby teeth: most of what shows in its mouth are the unemerged tooth buds. Basically all it is is a very grisly relic, but certainly not evidence of a whole race of such things running around alive at one time.
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I have already seen the x-ray photograph. The reason why there is little or no brain tissue is that the skull has been damaged and the brain tissue removed, either as a result of or following the injury, and the supposed juvenile tooth buds are actually adult tooth sockets from which the teeth have been forcibly extracted. Basically, as I have already discussed with Dale Drinnon on previous occasions), it appears that the mummy was once a dwarf adult (whether human or some pygmy humanoid race is undetermined) that was deliberately killed by a severe blow to the skull, and at some time (either as torture while living following capture, or more probably after death for some religious ritual?) had had its teeth pulled out.
While in the mood for commenting on Dale's varied crypto-statements of late: I feel obliged to say that his identification not so long ago on the CFZ bloggo of the mythical Welsh water-leaper as a freshwater stingray is unlikely in the extreme. As the UK (which includes Wales) is one of the angling capitals of the world, there is no possibility whatsoever that anything as distinctive as a freshwater stingray would have remained undetected by science in any Welsh river or other body of freshwater. If scientists themselves had not brought it to scientific attention, local and visiting fishermen would definitely have done so long ago. The water-leaper is nothing more than an exotic beast of local legend, about as cryptozoological as the Isle of Skye's very own version of the unicorn or Cumbria's flying hedgehog.
Previous experience with Dale suggests that this could well be the beginning - if I let it be - of a very protracted, increasingly heated series of exchanges, so forgive me if I choose not to pursue these points further. I have offered my opinions, and until - if ever - the Wyoming mini-mummy and/or a Welsh water-leaper are obtained, that is all that can be offered, which are neither right nor wrong, merely opinions, and is why I prefer not to enter into long exchanges. Facts are what matter, and opinions, however forcibly expressed, are not facts, unless supported by physical evidence, which is sadly lacking in both of these cases.
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