The "Atacama Skeleton," found in La Noria, Chile, in 2003S. BHATTACHARYA
Update (April 2): Genomics Research has released a statement defending its review and publication of the paper.
Last week (March 22), researchers reported the sequenced genome of a mummified fetus found in 2003 near Chile’s Atacama desert in Genome Research. Now, some Chilean scientists are condemning the study as unethical, and the Chilean National Monuments Council has begun an inquiry into whether the remains were illegally disinterred and smuggled out of the country (via The New York Times).
The Chilean Society of Biological Anthropology released a statement yesterday (March 28), in which it says the study ignored the basic ethical standards surrounding archaeology. “[A] study of similar characteristics where the remains of a fetus [were] unearthed from a current cemetery in a developed country would ...
