Tests on samples of mitochondrial DNA taken from Naia show that she has a genetic marker common today across the Americas, one that scientists say evolved in a prehistoric population that had been isolated for thousand of years in Beringia, the land mass between Alaska and Siberia that formed a bridge between the continents during the Ice Ages. Revelations made this past spring about her DNA make this 13,000-year-old girl (name Naia by those who discovered her) one of the most extraordinary archeological finds in Mexico. These physical discrepancies led scientists to question whether he was a direct ancestor of modern Native Americans, or if a different group of people migrated to the Americas and gave rise to them. Naias mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down from mother to child, has given a partial peek at her lineage. The skeleton, dubbed "Naia" (an ancient Greek name related to water nymphs) by her discoverers, belonged to a teenage girl who fell more than 100 feet to her death nearly a half mile inside an. But the genetics says Native Americans are descended from Siberians, so Chatterss team suggests Naias seemingly non-Siberian facial features really are Siberian, and that the faces of the earliest Americans changed later as a result of evolution. Image credit: Daniel Riordan Araujo. In other words, shes likely a genetic great-aunt to indigenous people currently found in the Americas. (2014)Cite this article. Growing genetic evidence indicates that this population seeded the Americas, by migrating across a land bridge from Siberia to Alaska between 18,000 and 15,000 years ago. A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. Bones of a Teenage Mother Who Died 12,000 Years Ago Tell Researchers a Imagine a basketball stadium dome in the ground, said diver Alberto Nava, who is based in Monterey, Calif. Two months after they found the pit, during another dive, Nava and his two colleagues reached the boulder-covered bottom of the pit and discovered a virtual museum of animal bones. A team of science divers led by Alberto Nava Blank from Proyecto de Espeleologia de Tulum discovered the skeleton along with remains of giant ground sloths, gomphotheres, saber-toothed cats and many other extinct animals deep inside a submerged chamber in the Sac Actun cave system in the eastern Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, in 2007. Scientists theorized that he could have been related to populations in East Asia that spread along the coast and eventually colonized Polynesia. Earth's shifting magnetic poles don't cause climate change, This ancient society tried to stop El Niowith child sacrifice, The bloody reigns of these Roman kings sparked a revolution, How Oppenheimer guarded WWIIs biggest secret, Step inside an ancient mummification workshop, At long last, the American buffalo has come home. Most of Naias remains are still where they fell. This is truly an extraordinary discovery, said Yemane Asmerom, a geochemist at the University of New Mexico who co-wrote the report. To many, that conclusion comes as no surprise. Her bad luck is science's good fortune. |. "It doesn't say anything new and doesn't dispute any of our findings, but likely overreaches in its conclusions because the DNA information falls short of being complete," Montana State University's Shane Doyle, one of the authors of the Anzick-1 study, told NBC News. After the Isthmus of Panama tectonically rose from the sea some 3 to 5 million years ago, the ecosystems that existed on the two continentsleft to stew in their own evolutionary juices for tens of millions of yearswere at last able to mix and mingle. The well-preserved remains offer a glimpse into the rapidly shifting world that surrounded Naia, a girl who died around 13,000 years ago. James C. Chatters et al. Why did Naia go into that cave and to her doom? Caves, Information and Facts | National Geographic Due to the fact that the Yucatan area was extremely dry during the season that Naia was there, water was scarce and the only place to find water easily during that time was in caves. See the ancient remains, venture through the remarkable deep-water chamber, and see how a skeleton belonging to a teenage girl from 13,000 years ago led scientists to a major revelation about the earliest Americans. But paleontologists still know very little about this massive interchange, since fossils are notoriously hard to come by in the tropical forests that cover the region. The small number of early American specimens discovered so far have smaller and shorter faces and longer and narrower skulls than later Native Americans, more closely resembling the modern people of Africa, Australia, and the South Pacific. He said he hadn'tread the paper titled "Late Pleistocene Human Skeleton andmtDNA Link Paleoamericans and Modern Native Americans" and would like to see more genetic evidence to bolster the report's central hypothesis. A series of delicate measurements followed. The skeleton was nicknamed "Naia," echoing the Greek term for a water nymph. He compared the cave, known as Hoyo Negro (black hole), to the Awash Valley of Ethiopia the site of the 1974 discovery of Lucy, an early human ancestor. We are now recognizing that it is much more complicated, and this is the real fun of paleontology., Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Chatters, J. C. et al.
An ancient bear skull sits on the floor of Hoyo Negro, a flooded cave on Mexico's Yucatn Peninsula.
Their analysis showed that the site, which is now 130 feet below sea-level, would have been become submerged between 9,700 and 10,200 years ago. Now analysis of her skeleton is revealing details of her harsh existence in the . A paper published Thursday online in the journal Science argues that the discrepancy in appearance between the Paleoamericans and later Native Americans is most likely the result of recent, and relatively rapid, human evolution and not the result of subsequent migrations of people into the Americas. (Video: The Washington Post), Essential reporting from around the world, Girls 12,000-year-old skeleton may solve a mystery, Paleoamerican remains found in the Yucatan, Russias war might have a new casualty: The Putin-Erdogan bond, Birds are using anti-bird spikes to fortify nests in perfect comeback, Fire in Naples devours huge artwork by Italian artist; arson suspected. A. She went hungry a lot and much of her food came in the form of plant sugars, he says. As the cave divers drifted down through the dark waters of the Mexican sinkhole, they first spotted large boulders piled on the floor. Navas fellow explorer Alex Alvarez spotted the skull on the ledge. As for Naia: Her skull and some of her other bones had to be removed from the cave, due to concerns about unauthorized divers disturbing the evidence. She was found in Hoyo Negro, or Black Hole, a vast chamber inside the Sac Atun cave system on Mexicos Yucatan peninsula. "[4], Evidence from full genomic studies suggests that the first people in the Americas (both Paleoamericans and later contemporary Native Americans) diverged from Ancient East Asians about 36,000 years ago and expanded northwards into Siberia, where they encountered and interacted with a different Paleolithic Siberian population (known as Ancient North Eurasians), giving rise to both Paleosiberian peoples and Ancient Native Americans, which later migrated towards the Beringian region, became isolated from other populations, and subsequently populated the Americas.[5][6]. Science 344, 750-754 (2014). Douglas Owsley, a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and a leading expert on the Kennewick Man, cautioned that the new study is based on "a sample of one." How vulnerable are we? By:Rebekah Mullinix San Cristobal de Las Casas located in the state ofChiapasnear Guatelmala. "It appears that she fell quite a distance, and struck something hard enough to fracture her pelvis," Chatters said. Those methods indicated that Naia was somewhere between 12,000 and 13,000 years old. Now many scientists believe that the changes in appearance took place once the earlyNative Americanswere already established in the Americas. You can never exclude that Native Americans have more than one group of ancestors, says Chatters. Human Skull Found in Underwater Cave in Mexico, 12,600-year-old human remains that was found in Montana, "Late Pleistocene Human Skeleton and mtDNA Link Paleoamericans and Modern Native Americans". Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. They estimated the age of the skeleton at 12,000 to 13,000 years old, and found the genetic marker linking Naia to the Beringia population. One of chemistry's most crucial concepts is in crisis - can we fix it? She was only 15 years old when she wandered into the cave, perhaps in search of water in an era when the Yucatan was parched. As time wore on, the thinking goes, these people spread southward and gave rise to the Native American populations encountered by European settlers centuries ago. Were simply looking at a common heritage.. The divers coined the location where Naia was found as "Hoyo Negro" (Black Hole) because of the hole's vast impenetrable darkness. Or perhaps she was following an animal. Some 12,000 years ago, a teenage girl took a walk in whats now the Yucatan Peninsula and fell 190 feet into a deep pit, breaking her pelvis and likely killing her instantly. This toad can get you high. Genetically, Paleoamericans have similar attributes as modern Native Americans even if their morphology appears different. Heres the top of my story: The divers found her on a ledge, her skull at rest on an arm bone. Cave rescue: Key questions answered - BBC News Haplogroup D (mtDNA) is believed to have arisen in Asia. Doyle pointed out that mitochondrial DNA doesn't provide nearly as much information as the nuclear DNA that he and the other Anzick-1 researchers studied. Her bones were part of a 2007 discovery of a cache of animal bones in an underwater chamber called Hoyo Negro (Spanish for "Black Hole") in the Sistema Sac Actun. Prehistoric girl's bones in underwater cave helps link ancient and When you find remains, you dont want to touch anything. Some parts of the underwater cave even preserved the footprints of ancient bears, crusted over in a film of calcite. While researchers are still puzzling over Naia, tourists have a myriad of opportunities to witness other ancient skeletons and artifacts when visiting the countrys historic collections. This distinct morphology is most famously found in the Kennewick Man, a 9,000-year-old skeleton discovered two decades ago along the Columbia River in Washington state. Naiathe 13,000-Year-Old Native American Nabia. She probably fell into the sinkhole, as did the animals found around her. The oldest one dated so far is 12,000 years old. While her fall into the pit appeared to have fractured her pelvis, researchers arent sure if the fall killed her. Tests on mitochondrial DNA taken from Naia show that she had a genetic marker common today across the Americas, one that scientists say evolved in a prehistoric population that had been isolated for thousands of years in Beringia, the land mass between Alaska and Siberia that formed a bridge between the continents during the Ice Ages. She is related to an ancestral population that lived in Beringia, Siberia. Because these drip water deposits formed on top of Naias bones, their date must occur after she fell in the cave. These features are closer to those of modern peoples from Africa, Australia and the southern Pacific rim. This article was published more than9 years ago. Credit: Paul Nicklen/NGC. The past week was the hottest ever recorded on Earth, Lifes hidden laws: The arcane rules of evolution and how they work, Decade-long struggle over maths proof could be decided by $1m prize, the genetics says Native Americans are descended from Siberians. The floor disappeared under us, we could not see across, and when we pointed our lights down, all we could see was darkness.. The divers contacted archeologist Pilar Luna of Mexicos National Institute of Anthropology and History, and with support from the National Geographic Society they continued to explore the pit and document the fossils at the bottom, including two saber-toothed cats, six bears, three cougars and two ground sloths. Most of the mammals became extinct around 13,000 years ago. Though her skull is shaped like those of other early Americans, she shares a DNA sequence with some modern Native Americans. Scientists would also like to find more specimens from the age of the First Americans. These two ancient Americansand modern Native Americanscan likely all trace their heritage back to the same source population, a group that is thought to have been isolated for thousands of years in Beringia, the land mass that once connected Asia and the Americas. More than 12,000 years later, in 2007, after the seas had risen and the cave system had filled with water, her skull upside down, teeth remarkably intact caught the eye of a man in scuba gear. This underwater chamber is reachable only by divers in the Sac Actun cave system, a web of flooded tunnels beneath. The underwater caves of Mexico found in theYucatanand elsewhere attract divers from all over the planet. Internet Explorer). Turning the skull slowly, they snapped pictures every 20 degrees. "We make all the attempts to work in situ," said Pilar Luna, an archaeologist at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. As for why Naias skull is so different from modern Native Americans, co- author Deborah Bolnick, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin has an explanation: The physical differences between Paleoamericans and Native Americans today are more likely due to changes that occurred in Beringia and the Americas over the last 9,000 years. Bolnicks lab was one of the three to confirm the mtDNA findings. Such findings suggest that the physical differences between Paleoamericans and Native Americans are due to population changes that took place in Beringia and the Americas, and are not the result of separate migrations. In 2007, cave divers happened upon her remarkably preserved remains, which form the oldest, most complete and genetically intact human skeleton in the New World. Giant Underwater Cave Was Hiding Oldest Human Skeleton in the Americas In a deep underwater cave, three divers make a stunning discovery: the oldest complete human skeleton ever found in the. [1] At the time of Naia's death, the cave system was mostly dry, and she likely died falling into Hoyo Negro. Article Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Your Privacy Rights Later, rising seas brought on by melting glaciers raised the Yucatn Peninsulas water table by hundreds of feet, flooding the caves and entombing the skeletons. Siberian cave filled with mammoth, rhino and bear bones is ancient This guidebook is specifically for drivers to theYucatan peninsulawho want to explore more than Chichen Itza and Cancun. Chatters said in an interview, For 20 years Ive been trying to understand why the early people looked different. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. Health & Science Girl's 12,000-year-old skeleton may solve a mystery Divers exploring the waters off of Mexico's eastern Yucatn Peninsula recently discovered a near-complete,. Naica Cave: The Giant, Lethal Cave of the Crystals They chased wild game, including megafauna such as mastodons and saber-toothed cats, into unpopulated lands far from their ancestral hunting grounds. One maverick theory, based on archeological finds, contends that people came from Europe, following the edge of the ice around the North Atlantic. The skulls are so well-preserved, Schubert says, that visitors to his lab often mistake them for high-quality reconstructions. The whole peninsula is a favoritedestination of RV caravans. Late Pleistocene Human Skeleton and mtDNA Link Paleoamericans and Modern Native Americans. Thus, according to the report, the Native Americans and the Paleoamericans are the same people, descended from the same Beringia population. A new life-saving test could help diagnose pre-eclampsia. Three-fifths of a mile from the cave entrance, having penetrated a narrow tunnel, the divers came upon an astonishing sight: a massive pit, at least 150-feet deep. Now her bones, and those. Perhaps, Chatters said, she was in search of water in an era when the Yucatan was parched. Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. Most scientists have assumed that the first humans to come to the Americas crossed over from Eurasia across the Bering land bridge that existed before the oceans rose after the Ice Ages. Thestate of Yucatanis Mexicos newest, most popularex-pat hub. In 2018, I made an all-Yucatan guidebook that started with this map and road log. The mitochondrial DNA for their genetics analysis came from one of her teeth. This is a long way from being a settled matter, as youd expect with such a hot scientific topic. Now, their exquisitely preserved bones, trapped for centuries under water, are offering some of the first solid clues to how large Ice Age beasts were mixing and migrating between North and South America after the Isthmus of Panama connected the two continents. Skulls from the Yucatn Peninsula a Clue to Early American Settlers As the teens skeleton is one of the oldest ever found in the Americas, it sheds light on the genetic ancestry of the earliest Americans and provides essential concrete evidence about where they came from before reaching the Americas. There would have been no way out. The broken pelvis of Naias otherwise near-perfect skeleton is likely a result of the fall, he says. [3], The original report stated that "HN5/48 is among the small group of Paleoamerican skeletons, a group that is morphologically distinct from most Native Americans but within the natural variation of Asian-Pacific populations. Individuals from 9,000 or more years ago have morphological attributes distinctive from later Native American peoples. A paper published Thursday online in the journal Science argues that the discrepancy in appearance between the Paleoamericans and later Native Americans is most likely the result of recent, and relatively rapid, human evolution and not the result of subsequent migrations of people into the Americas. So, Naia went into the cave to find water. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. A pitted fragment of pelvic bone indicates that she had gone through labor and childbirth well before her death. (See how humans first entered the Americas.Surat To Mumbai Vande Bharat Train Time Table,
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