Ancient skeleton found in Mexico cave threatened by train

Some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered in sinkhole caves.

A prehistoric human skeleton has been found in a cave system that was flooded at the end of the last ice age 8,000 years ago, according to a cave-diving archaeologist on Mexico's Caribbean coast.

Archaeologist Octavio del Rio said he and fellow diver Peter Broger saw the shattered skull and skeleton partly covered by sediment in a cave near where the Mexican government plans to build a high-speed tourist train through the jungle.

Given the distance from the cave entrance, the skeleton couldn't have gotten there without modern diving equipment, so it must be over 8,000 years old, Del Rio said, referring to the era when rising sea levels flooded the caves.

“There it is. We don't know if the body was deposited there or if that was where this person died,” said Del Rio. He said that the skeleton was located about 8 metres underwater, about a half-kilometre (one third of a mile) into the cave system.

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Some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered in the sinkhole caves known as “cenotes” on the country's Caribbean coast, and experts say some of those caves are threatened by the Mexican government's Maya Train tourism project.

Del Rio, who has worked with the National Institute of Anthropology and History on projects in the past, said he had notified the institute of the discovery. The institute did not immediately respond to questions about whether it intended to explore the site.