Scientists have discovered a 13,000-year-old skeleton in an underwater Mexican cave which they believe can help answer questions about the origins of the Western Hemisphere's first people and their relationship to modern Native American populations.
Genetic tests on the preserved female skeleton, discovered by cave divers, determined that the Ice Age humans, who first crossed into the Americas over a land bridge that linked Siberia to Alaska, did give rise to today's Native American populations, instead of "hypothesized later entrants into the hemisphere," according to Reuters.
Her remains were found underwater alongside bones of more than two dozen beasts.
Other bones discovered include cave bears, giant ground sloths, saber-toothed tigers, and an elephant relative called a gomphothere.
The girl was discovered in 2007 with her entire cranium and preserved DNA intact, according to Reuters. She was approximately 4 feet 10 inches tall, and around 15 or 16 years old when she passed.
Researchers have speculated that the girl wandered off into a cave to find freshwater and fell to her death into an "inescapable trap" 100 feet deep, according to archeologist James Chatters of the firm of Applied Paleoscience, one of the leaders of the study.
At around 135 feet below sea level, the chamber was "a time capsule of the environment and human life" at the end of the Ice Age, according to Reuters.
Divers named her "Naia" after a water nymph from Greek mythology.
"It was a small cranium laying upside down with a perfect set of teeth and dark eye sockets looking back at us," said Alberto Nava said, one of the divers, regarding the skull, according to Reuters.
The pit was dry when the girl fell in, but the Ice Age glaciers melted approximated 10,000 years ago. Tests determined that she lived between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago.
Research, which was led by the Mexican government's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and supported by the National Geographic Society, was published in the journal Science.
"Scientists long have debated the origins of the first people of the Americas," said Reuters. "Many scientists think these hunter-gatherers crossed the former land bridge between 26,000 and 18,000 years ago and subsequently pushed into North and South America starting perhaps 17,000 years ago."
Most ancient New World remains have confused researchers because they have narrower skulls and other features that are different from modern Native Americans.
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