On May 15, 2014 remains of a 12,000 to 13,000 year old teenage girl was found 40 meters below sea level in Hoyo Negro, a deep pit within the Sac Actun cave system on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. A group of international researchers and cave divers first discovered this skull. The remains were form the Pleistocene or last ice age. The researchers nicknamed the skull Naia, which in ancient Greek means water nymph.

The team also found a few extinct animals. Giant ground sloths, gomphotheres, saber-toothed cats, and bears, pumas, peccaries were found near and the skull.

The The Hoyo Negro project was lead by Mexican government’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). They were assisted by the National Geographic Society. This discovery is significant because it sheds light on how native and modern Americans were like in the past. It also shows us how early Americans looked like, what they ate, and where they came from. We know this by forensic facial reconstruction, and carbon dating the bones. You can read in more detail about this discovery here