HOYO NEGRO

The cenotes and underwater cave systems of the Yucatan Peninsula are emerging as one of the most promising frontiers for Paleoamerican studies. Following the end of the last glacial maximum, rising sea levels flooded the region's maze of underground passageways and preserved a diverse Late Pleistocene fossil assemblage. A female human skeleton, named "Naia," found in spatial association with the remains of now-extinct fauna in the submerged subterranean pit of Hoyo Negro presents a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary Paleoamerican and paleoenvironmental research in Quintana Roo, Mexico. At 13,000-12,000 years BP, the young woman's skeleton represents the oldest nearly complete individual yet found in the Americas... One of the enduring mysteries of the First Americans is why, in terms of cranio-facial morphology, they look so different from modern Native Americans. This has led to the idea that perhaps the earliest Americans migrated into the New World from regions other than..

Primary location: La Jolla United States