'Alien' skull of toddler is actually evidence of long-standing practice of head shaping

Two views of a child's skull that has been flattened at the back, on black backgrounds in a lab.

While installing a water pipeline in Argentina last month, workers stumbled upon the skull of a child who was buried at least 700 years ago. The archaeological discovery quickly garnered media attention because of the asymmetry of the skull, drawing comparisons to aliens.

But the flattening on the back of the skull, which belonged to a 3- to 4-year-old child, is simply the result of the cultural practice of head shaping, Cristian Sebastián Melián, director of the Provincial Directorate of Anthropology in Catamarca, Argentina, told Live Science in a translated email.