It ’s the twenty-first century , but confederacy theories about a “ long - lost raceway of giants ” still live strong ( honestly , you would n’t consider how many messages we receive about it ) . Rumors about one such colossus have lately emerged in South America where it ’s say a huge humanoid frame has been bring out . However , armchair archeologist should take this wild call with a elephantine - sized pinch of saltiness .

In a new work , anthropologist Nicholas Landol see into the claim that archaeologists of late found the skeleton of a giant in a quiet Ecuadorian hamlet . While it ’s dead on target an onetime skeleton was recovered here , Landol concludes that estimation of the soul ’s height have been grossly portentous .

The so - called “ Julcuy giant ” was unearthed in early 2019 by geologist Theofilos Toulkeridis and archeologist Florencio Delgado near the Greenwich Village of Julcuy in Ecuador ’s Manabí province .

It ’s approximate the mortal endure at some point during the Manteño - Huancavilca refinement ( 1200 to 1600 CE ) . Much of the strong-arm remains had been lost , but the twosome managed to recover the soul ’s left ulna , left radius , both of their humeri , both femurs , and fragmented share of their lower wooden leg bones .

Later that class , a documentary seriesCode of the Wildaired an sequence call up “ Lost Race of Giants , ” in which Delgado and Toulkeridis were interview about their discovery .

The host claimed that the individual place upright approximately 2.1 m ( 7 foot ) tall when awake , which would have been remarkably tall for a person over five millennia ago . They go on to interview local Indigenous Salasaca people who recite theiroral tradition of cannibalistic titan .

However , there is good reason to suspect the height estimate in the 2019 documentary was massively exaggerated . Landol spoke to Delgado , the archeologist who made the discovery , who explained the bones were measured using a “ fundamental technique ” involving only a tape measure .

" give the amount of disarticulation an someone ’s remains can experience via taphonomic processes , such a technique can prove debatable , ” writes Landol .

The documentary showed an on - cover computer graphic that advise the femur was almost 61 centimeters ( 24 column inch ) long , much longer than theaverage male person ’s femurof less than 45 centimeters ( 17.7 inches ) . However , this appears to have been an premise base on the soul ’s alleged tiptop , because Delgado corroborate they never made any such measurement of the femur .

In a terrible cam stroke of bad luck , most of the Julcuy someone ’s cadaver were destroyed and move during the 2023 rainy time of year , meaning a full - blown scientific investigation of the bones is no longer possible . Fortunately , the individual ’s left-hand femur was recovered , completely intact except for a few scratches .

A reevaluation of the leg bone intimate it was a maximal length of 40 centimeters ( 15.7 inch ) , which is slightly short than the mean valet de chambre .

base on the bone length , the new report conclude that the Julcuy individual probably stood between 153.34 centimeters and 162.37 centimeters ( 5 feet to 5 groundwork 4 inches ) while alive – not quitea giant . In fact , that ’s fairly much the tallness you ’d expect from an Indigenous American human being born at least 400 age ago .

The study is publish in theInternational Journal of Osteoarchaeology .