Mystery Tiny Feline Adult Mummy Found Near Area 51

Location- On our property in the foothills of Mount Charleston, overlooking the Pahrump Valley near Area 51. It was the Thanksgiving of 2003 around 2:00 p.m.

My daughter and I decided to walk off the bloat and take a hike around the property. When we were on the pathway to the chicken coop my daughter yelled,"Don't step on it!" I looked down towards the ground and there was this tiny dead animal. (if I did step on it, it wouldn't have done any damage) In fact, this thing was not just "merely dead..... it was most sincerely dead!" (Wizard of Oz fan). It was totally mummified! At first, I thought it was a rat, but upon further observation I noticed it was not. We're out on our property just about every day and if this little creature would have been there before, we would have noticed it. It was right out, in plain sight. I figured either a dust devil flung it our way from out of a wash or it was dropped by a bird of prey.

I put on some rubber gloves to examine this thing. It's leather-like and surely could have remained intact, even if it fell out of an airplane! I cleaned it off the best I could and put it in one of those large pickle jars. Some digital photos were taken and an e-mail was sent to a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and here's what she said.

"Boy that's really interesting! A cat would only have to be about 6 months old to have its adult dentition, but it's hard to imagine such a tiny guy surviving for that long if he really were such a runt!
One thing I observe in the photos is that the molar (last tooth) in the upper jaw is a *lot* bigger and more developed than you usually see in modern domestic cats. But I guess that just deepens the mystery!" Cheers Dr. Jean

Here's another e-mail I received from the Utah Museum of Natural History

"Eric the UMNH Curator of Vertebrates, and I reviewed your photos and
were unable to determine the species of this animal from the pictures. The
view of the face, which is the best diagnostic indicator, isn't clear enough to
make a species identification. It's not big and the feet seem to be digitigrade.
The cranium (from what we can see) is round. So a
guess is that it may be a cat of some sort, although the tail is pretty short.
It might be a baby, but the feet aren't disproportionately large"

The mummy was sent to Missouri to the Museum of the Unexplained. From there it was taken to Drury University in Springfield where it was examined by a Cryptobiologist and an Anatomist in the Biology Department. According to a Physics Scholar, "The little creature was literally put under a microscope and the scientists used *keys* of known animals to help identify it, in addition to bringing out skulls and a mummified cat that was trapped in the chapel wall for a hundred years! The scientists said it appears to be an adult feline cat because of the mature teeth. It was held up beside a mummy of (a normal size) adult cat that was trapped in the chapel wall. The little mummy was only about the size of the other cat's HEAD!" It is only about 5 and 1/2 inches long.

At the time the little cat mummy was in Missouri Jane Goldman was there from Living TV in the UK. She was filming a story on the Bob White Object, for her TV show 'Jane Goldman Investigates.' She had photos taken with the little mummy.

Tests were never done to determine how long the little feline mummy has been a mummy. Some say a carbon 14 dating would not work because of the area where it was found. The teeth appear more non-domestic ie- a cougars. One physics scholar even speculated about, "Prehistoric times and how mammals developed as tiny creatures along side the dinosaurs. When the dinos died out, then mammals grew larger and larger. Think of a prominent cat--the sabertooth tiger! That was large and mean! Maybe the little feline mystery mummy is a missing link, or early mammal that should have been extinct millions of years ago."

The mummys underside is in rough shape. Evidently that's the side it was laying on for possible eons. In this mummified state no bacteria exists. It does smell a little musky when it's been sealed-up for any length of time. The runt theory brings the question....."Why are the extremities in proportion with the rest of its tiny body. Usually that's not the case." It's the size of a small kitten, but is a full-grown adult feline species.
The only other way of identifing it according to the scientists would be to cut off its head. Right now it's in a little wooden box with a clear plastic lid in my closet.
I wish to thank and give credit to Larry Cekander, Bob White and Dr. Robert H. Gibbons and all the scientists. All input would be appreciated.





The following 3 photo's are by Larry Cekander.





Larry Cekander's *Museum of the Unexplained Bus*

a dwarf feral perhaps?

Thats quite the find you have there. I must admit, it is very hard to even make a decision of what it could be based on looking at the pictures alone. But, i do think, like you, that it seems to be an adult judging by the proportions.

DNA analysis would make quick work of IDing it.

I was told j_kalin that they probably couldn't get a DNA from it.
It was too desiccated. I also want to note that there were no domestic cats in this area, at that time. We do have Bobcats and Cougars on occasions.

Rubbish. Crack open a bone, get the marrow.

To C.C.Benjamin

I've contacted CatGenes.org and waiting for a response. They require quite a bit of hair and inside cheek samples. The only hair-like substance it has on it is whiskers and probably not enough. This little feline is extremely desiccated and the marrow in its bones are most likely dried-up. Probably not enough viable in order to get a proper DNA. I'm expecting a response from CatGenes saying that they can't do it either. If you know of one who will than please let me know! I'm willing to send the mummy to them. I will keep you updated one way or the other.

very intresting indeed and i have no clue as to what type of cat that could be i cant wait to find out though. heres hoping that you find someone to get a dna sampeling done with.

Have you considered the possibility that it was a normal cat that had dwarfism?

www.messybeast.com...

www.dwarf-cat.com...

Or perhaps a Sand Cat that had been illegally imported, or escaped from a zoo.

www.indiantiger.org...

www.bigcatrescue.org...

Hmmmm...... lets start attaching cameras to animals, and see how far they can go before caught by guards, but then again they might get by them. Never know.

It might just be a kitten, either a runt or something that was malnutrition and then dried up, past the age where they are just balls of cat but before they get big. Runts tend to look adult quickly and malnutrition would keep it smaller than normal. Might explain why it ended up there, since runts tend to be kicked out of the litter.

MajorMalfunction said,

Or perhaps a Sand Cat that had been illegally imported, or escaped from a zoo.

There is quite a few people here who own exotics cats. Mostly Big cats Tigers, Panthers, Lions ect... The nearest zoo is 65 miles away. What if there was Sand Cats of some sort, in this desert they didn't know about? They would blend in with the deserts surroundings, wouldn't necessarily leave tracks, bury their waste matters, and are nocturnal. Some scientists believe it's not a dwarf, because the extremities are in proportion with the rest of its body. Also the teeth appear to be non-domestic. 'If' it is a relative to the Sand Cat that would be unique. Still haven't heard from CatGenes.org.

It's probably ridiculously expensive, but I know that they CAN extract DNA from bone/teeth of ancient samples, as they've done in the case of some Neanderthal(s) I heard about.

I have no idea who you'd go to for that, though. I'll have to look around a bit and see if I can find the references.

Here's an article on it:

www.archaeology.org...

The guy's in Hamburg, Germany.

Here is another article about him. Sounds like the guy you want.

Hmmm ... apparently he's in Leipzig now. Here is his contact info. Good luck!

WOW! Thank-you MM
I will contact Prof. Dr. Svante Pääbo and send him some photos.
I will let you know what he has to say.
Thanks again!

reply to post by MountainStar


Can we call him Bernard?

reply to post by MountainStar


Google Queen, at your service.

Let me know what happens. I'm interested in what your tiny feline ends up being.

A well documented topic! The way it's supposed to be. I've got nothing to add. Just a question - Why are you only sharing this now, 4 years after the discovery? (Or at least what inspired you to share this after all this time with the ATS community?)

Gemwolf's quote,

A well documented topic! The way it's supposed to be. I've got nothing to add. Just a question - Why are you only sharing this now, 4 years after the discovery? (Or at least what inspired you to share this after all this time with the ATS community?)

Actually Gemwolf the ATS was the first to get my story shortly, after we found the critter. That post seems to have disappeared in cyber-space.
I didn't have much information on it at the time, other than it was a mysterious little mummy. I thought it was a canine of some sort, due to the ears flopping down. Other responses thought maybe it was a small monkey! Drury University in Springfield Missouri identified it as a feline.
It even went on tour with the *Museum of the Unexplained's* bus, along with the Bob White Object. (The object Bob found which was shot out of a UFO). Springer is investigating that object Right Now on the ATS.
Now I'm at a standstill, until I can get a DNA to find out the feline's origin. I am contacting Prof. Dr. Svante Pääbo in Germany to see if he would be interested in identifying it. Many thanks to MajorMalfunction the Google Queen of the ATS!

Larry from the *Museum of the Unexplained* asked me if I had any new information on the mummy recently. So I decided to pull it out of moth-balls and look into it once again. When and 'if' I hear from Prof. Dr. Svante Pääbo I will let everyone know. I'm willing to ship the mummy to him in Germany. I know he's a really busy man, but he's the best! Don't think the mummy will need a Passport.

[edit on 1/7/2008 by MountainStar]

The following 3 photo's were taken by Larry Cekander.