Is the Starchild Skull a deformity?

    Since investigations began in 1999, multiple illnesses, ailments, and deformation processes have been suggested to explain the appearance and composition of the Starchild skull. Even Lloyd Pye, now the Project's research coordinator, originally and reflexively believed that it must be some sort of deformity.

    Each of these suggestions has been taken seriously, and conscientious research has been undertaken to try and find a simple medical reason for the anomalous skull. At this time, no known medical condition or cultural practice has been found that can explain the Starchild skull.

Most Commonly Suggested Explanations

Could the unusually flattened rear of the skull (occipital region) be caused by Cradleboarding?

Could the bulging sides of the skull (parietal regions) and abnormal cranial shape be caused by Hydrocephaly?

CRADLEBOARDING

Cradleboarding (also known as cradle-boarding, or cradle boarding) is the practice of securing an infant's head to a flat piece of wood known as a cradleboard for safety and convenience, and in some cases to deliberately alter the shape of the head. A similar flattened appearance can also be caused by an infant frequently laying prone on a hard surface for the first few years of life. In either case, the pressure on the soft infant bones causes the bone at the rear of the skull, called the "occipital," to flatten.

This flattening is very pronounced, but does not extend below an area of the skull known as the "inion," or "external occipital protuberance." All humans have an inion. It is a small lump of bone at the rear of the head to which the neck muscles attach. One of the more usual features of the Starchild skull is that it does not have an inion, and in fact has a slight indentation where the lump of the inion should be. No explanation for this has ever been proposed, and no other case of this has ever been uncovered by the Starchild Project researchers.

The Adult Female skull reportedly found with the Starchild (shown right) was cradleboarded. Note that the shape of the skull is normal and round except for the noticeably flattened area from the inion to the top of the head where the skull pressed against the hard surface.

The Starchild also has an abnormally shaped occipital, but unlike a cradleboarded skull, the flattening extends far below the area of the inion. Both X-rays of the Starchild skull (see below) show subtle convolutions in the rear bone of the skull. Such natural convolutions are not present in areas of bone that have been artificially flattened by cradleboarding or any other means.

Dr. Ted Robinson is a craniofacial surgeon who headed a group of 11 experts who carefully examined the skull. Their findings care be read HERE. Dr. Robinson was certain that the Starchild skull could not have been cradleboarded, saying:

"This could not have been caused by any kind of flattening or binding device because the surface of the occipital reveals the subtle convolutions inevitably present in unaltered skulls. Skulls that undergo any kind of shaping technique will always reveal such technique with a distortion of the bone surface... it is entirely safe to say that the extreme flattening of the skull was caused by its natural growth pattern and is not artificial."

 

HYDROCEPHALY

Hydrocephaly (also called Hydrocephalus) is a condition where abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the cranium causes an increase in internal pressure which pushes outward against the skull. This fluid accumulation can occur at any time in life, and has various potential causes including congenital defect, hemorrhage into the brain, infection, meningitis, tumor, and head injury. The CSF can collect inside the tissues of the brain, externally between the brain and the cranial wall, or both. The points where the bones of the skull join together are called "sutures," shown below left as the black lines separating the bones of the skull. In infants and children with unfused cranial sutures the increased internal pressure from hydrocephaly causes the skull to enlarge by forcing the sutures, the weakest points of the skull, to expand in all directions. In adults the condition can be extremely dangerous if untreated because suture fusion prevents the cranial expansion and the pressure is placed directly on the brain.

 

There are other types of hydrocephaly that don't result in abnormal CSF pressure, but as these don't apply to the investigation of the Starchild skull, they won't be discussed.

It is often suggested that the Starchild skull was hydrocephalic as an infant, causing the abnormal parietal expansion and overall distorted shape of the skull. When a skull is expanded by hydrocephaly the  cranial sutures are forced to widen and the skull is distorted (shown above right). Dr David Hodges, a radiologist, and Dr. Ted Robinson, a craniofacial surgeon, examined the Starchild skull, its X-rays and its CAT Scan results, and were positive that the suture lines were healthy and growing at the time of death and did not indicate hydrocephaly, or show any other widening or abnormality.  Dr. Bachynsky, another radiologist who examined the evidence with Dr. Robinson, and various other experts, found no signs of erosion by CSF on the internal surfaces of the skull, and supported Dr. Robinson in his conclusion that the Starchild was not hydrocephalic. Read their full report HERE.

     

X-Rays of the Starchild skull (left) and a hydrocephalic patient (right). Note the very different cranial shapes, with the hydrocephalic skull expanded in all directions, like blowing up a balloon, while the Starchild skull maintains a structured shape. Also note the visible the imprints of veins on the Starchild but not in the hydrocephalic. In cases where there is CSF between the cranium and brain, no vein imprints are visible.

The Starchild skull does not have a shape consistent with internal pressure forcing the cranium to deform. Only the parietal regions of the skull, solid hard plates of bone, have been expanded, while the soft sutures remain unchanged. It is physically impossible to exert enough pressure on the skull, even in its soft infant stage, to change the shape of the solid parietal bones without affecting the soft suture lines.

This angled view (left) of the rear of the Starchild skull clearly shows a highly abnormal "dent" at the Saggital suture (indicated with red arrow), the line where the two parietals join. This is the weakest point where, if any pressure was inside the skull, the most bulging would be evident. The fact that this suture is healthy, unfused, unwidened, and not bulged outward proves that the shape of the skull could not have been caused by any sort of internal pressure like hydrocephaly.