Remains of Two Infant Girls Found in Peruvian Nazca Cemetery

LIMA, PERU—Phys.org reports that the remains of an infant who suffered from cyclopia, a rare birth condition affecting the developing brain and facial bones, have been discovered in southern Peru at a Nazca cemetery dated to between A.D. 325 and 440. Elsa Tomasto-Cagigao of Pontifical Catholic University and her colleagues explained that most children born with the condition die before or soon after birth. The remains of this child were found in a ceramic vessel with the remains of another infant who did not have any skeletal abnormalities. Genetic analysis of the remains indicate that both children were girls, but they were not maternally related. The baby with cyclopia had a smaller than expected skull with a single eye socket in the center of the forehead, no nasal bones or nostrils, and the openings of her optic nerves had fused. Her shoulders were unusually curved, and two of her spinal bones were malformed. She also had an extra copy of chromosome 13, which could explain her rare developmental condition, the researchers concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PNAS. For more on the Nazca culture, go to “Mapping the Past: The Paracas Textile.”