Wyoming Infant Mummy Has Blond Hair, Native American DNA

A mummy discovered around 1929 is a rare example of a mummified baby that was born with anencephaly around 500 years ago, scientists say.

Called "Chiquita," the mummified infant has wispy blond hair and leathery skin, and she has something in common with another mummy that was accidentally unearthed in the 1930s by prospectors hunting for gold in Casper, Wyo., the Casper Star-Tribune reported.

Despite the baby's blonde hair, Chiquita's DNA indicates that she was Native American, according to anthropologist George Gill of the University of Wyoming. He recently studied the extremely rare specimen, which is owned by a family in Cheyenne.

"We never get preservation like that from any time, from any population," Gill said of the remains. "Even war chiefs and very special burials are not preserved like these little people."

Chiquita is part of a unique group: known infant mummies that were born with anencephaly, a birth defect where the brain and skull don't develop properly. She bears similarities to another mummified infant found in the Pedro Mountains in the early 1930s and believed at first to be a pygmy.

"Nowhere else in Wyoming do we have burial sitting up like that. Never sitting up with legs crossed and arms folded across their chest," Gill said. "There's a clear connection between the two of them, besides being in the same region."

About 6 or 7 inches tall, the Pedro Mountains mummy has been displayed as a curiosity in multiple places over the years but was lost somewhere around 1950. Unfortunately, X-rays of the specimen have disappeared as well.

While the Pedro Mountains remains are now out of reach, the family that has Chiquita allowed to study the mummified infant for a set amount of time. Dated to around 1500, the mummy inspired more questions than she answered, including why she has blond hair but apparently Native American genes. Gill believes that more information could be extracted if the mummy undergoes the latest tests.

"Maybe we could even do more now," he said. "It's been a few years, and they're always progressing in the sampling and testing in the radioactive carbon dating and DNA, so we might be able to use less of a sample and DNA and get a definitive result."