A Cautionary Tale DNA Analysis of Alleged Extraterrestrial Biological Material: Anatomy of a Molecular Forensic Investigation

In investigating cases of alleged anomalies, particularly when physical evidence appears to corroborate the anomalous nature of an event, a tendency to jump to hasty conclusions can manifest. Here we describe a case in which multiple rounds of DNA analysis of a biological sample appeared to corroborate its reported anomalous (extraterrestrial) origins. In September 2000, an object resembling a claw was found by a family in a bedroom of their Californian home. The family reported they were in the midst of an intense series of visitations by purported extraterrestrials. Thus, the preliminary DNA analysis on this claw began to appear to “fit in” with the multiple reports of high strangeness events as reported by the primary eyewitnesses. The linkage was made stronger because the anomalous biological sample was found in the same bedroom in which numerous visitations and intrusions by alleged extraterrestrials had occurred. Further, the sample was found during a period of intense anomalous activity in the same bedroom. Six separate rounds of subsequent DNA analysis, using different and sometimes very novel approaches, were carried out to bring this case to a conclusion. It was necessary to invent a new polymerase chain reaction using novel primers to the most conserved DNA sequences on Earth in order to finally resolve this case. Hence, painstaking DNA analyses and the use of bioinformatics methodology over a 12 month period by highly qualified teams of experts in three countries was necessary to establish that the biological specimen found in the house was a mundane terrestrial mollusk. Mollusks, particularly snails and slugs, secrete a thick mucous that contains multiple inhibitors of many of the common enzymes that are fundamental to molecular biology and DNA analysis, including polymerase chain reaction enzymes and those used in standard molecular cloning. Further, there is a relative paucity of mollusk DNA sequences, particularly from mollusks found in California, in global DNA databanks. These two factors conspired to lead this investigation down a false path for about a year. Ultimately, however rigorous DNA analysis using a novel set of oligonucleotide primers for the polymerase chain reaction solved the puzzle. The