Meet Naia, the 13,000-year-old teenager

The 13,000-year-old near-complete skeleton of a teenage girl found undersea in Mexico throws light on the link between the first Americans (Paleoamericans) and modern Native Americans. Named Naia by the dive team, the 14- or 15-year-old girl was found with the remains of at least 26 extinct pre-historic animals, including Saber Tooth tigers, giant ground sloths and cave bears.

Most genetic research to date has supported the idea that Native Americans descended from Siberians, while Paleoamericans were most similar to modern people of Africa, Australia and the Southern Pacific Rim.  But Naia possesses the craniofacial features of ancient Paleoamericans and mitochondrial DNA possessed by today’s Native Americans. The results show that the two groups were significantly related, probably deriving from the same gene pool. Both would trace their lineage to Beringia, the land mass between Alaska and Siberia that formed a bridge between the continents during the Ice Ages.

Scientists say that Naia might have been searching for water when she entered the underground cave and plummeted into the 100 foot deep massive chamber now called Hoyo Negro or ‘black hole’.

Source: chron.com