Alien-like skulls found in Mexico

Were the Mayans right, that doomsday would bring aliens to earth?

Researches unearthed 13 grotesquely deformed skulls in Mexico, but they appear to be human, not extraterrestrial.

The skulls, deformed through a practice known to be common in Central American tribes, are proof that the tradition migrated much further north than previously known. Some also had deformed teeth. They were discovered in a cemetery in Onavas, Mexico, in the northern state of Sonora.

The cemetery, dated at about 1000 years old, was discovered in 1999 by villagers building an irrigation canal. The bones date from 945 to 1308 A.D.

Cristina Garcia Moreno, the Arizona State University scientist who analyzed the bones, told ABC News that children's skulls were often deformed by placing beams of wood on the front and back of the head and binding the beams to exert pressure on the skull.

“We know that in some parts of Mexico, people deformed their heads because they wanted to distinguish important people or they wanted to distinguish people from one group from another,” she said.

"The reason why these individuals at El Cementerio deformed their skulls is still unknown." The 13 deformed skulls were found in a burial that included 25 skeletons, 17 of which were those of children. The children showed no signs of disease, suggesting they may have been killed by the process of cranial deformation.