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Naia (designated as HN5/48) is the nameHer name is derived from a type of water nymph in
Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...
—the
Naiads In Greek mythology, the naiads (; grc-gre, ναϊάδες, naïádes) are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from river gods, who ...
.
given to a 12,000 – to 13,000-year-old
human skeleton The human skeleton is the internal framework of the human body. It is composed of around 270 bones at birth – this total decreases to around 206 bones by adulthood after some bones get fused together. The bone mass in the skeleton makes up a ...
of a teenage female who was found in the
Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...
,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
. 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 Sistema Sac Actun (from Spanish and Yucatec Maya meaning "White Cave System") is an underwater cave system situated along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán Peninsula with passages to the north and west of the city of Tulum. Discovery of a connec ...
. At the time of Naia's death, the cave system was mostly dry, and she likely died falling into Hoyo Negro. The remains have been described as the "oldest, most complete and genetically intact human skeleton in the New World".


Genetic testing

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."
Genetic testing Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...
indicated a genetic link between Paleoamericans and modern
indigenous peoples of the Americas The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...
as testing found MtDNA haplotype D1.
Haplogroup D (mtDNA) In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup D is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. It is a descendant haplogroup of haplogroup M, thought to have arisen somewhere in Asia, between roughly 60,000 and 35,000 years ago (in the Late Ple ...
is believed to have arisen in Asia. D1 is also found in Central Asia and is one of the founding lineages in the Americas. Subhaplogroup D1 occurs in 10.5% of extant Native Americans, with highest frequency of 29% in indigenous people from Chile and Argentina. The report concluded that "HN5/48 shows that the distinctive craniofacial morphology and generalized dentition of Paleoamericans can co-occur with a Beringian derived mtDNA haplogroup. This 13–12 ka Paleoamerican skeleton thus suggests that Paleoamericans represent an early population expansion out of
Beringia Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip ...
, not an earlier migration from elsewhere in Eurasia. This is consistent with hypotheses that both Paleoamericans and Native Americans derive from a single source population, whether or not all share a lineal relationship ... the differences in craniofacial form between Native Americans and their Paleoamerican predecessors are best explained as evolutionary changes that postdate the divergence of Beringians from their Siberian ancestors." 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 Eurasian In archaeogenetics, the term Ancient North Eurasian (generally abbreviated as ANE) is the name given to an ancestral component that represents a lineage ancestral to the people of the Mal'ta–Buret' culture and populations closely related to th ...
s), 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.


Impact on the American skull morphology debate

A report published in the ''
American Journal of Physical Anthropology The ''American Journal of Biological Anthropology''Info pages about the renaming are: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/26927691/homepage/productinformation.html and https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/26927691 (previously known as ...
'' in January 2015 looked again at craniofacial variation focusing on differences between early and late Native Americans and explanations for these based on either skull morphology or molecular genetics. Arguments based on molecular genetics have in the main, according to the authors, accepted a single migration from Asia with a probable pause in Berengia, plus later bi-directional gene flow. Studies focusing on craniofacial morphology have argued that Paleoamerican remains have "been described as much closer to Polynesian and Australo-Melanesians populations than to the modern series of Native Americans", suggesting two entries into the Americas, an early one occurring before a distinctive East Asian morphology developed (referred to in the paper as the "Two Components Model"). A third model, the "Recurrent Gene Flow" GFmodel, attempts to reconcile the two, arguing that circumarctic gene flow after the initial migration could account for morphological changes. Noting that the original report on the Hoyo Negro skeleton supported the RGF model, the authors disagreed with the conclusion that the skull shape did not match those of modern Native Americans, instead arguing that the "skull falls into a subregion of the morphospace occupied by both Paleoamericans and some modern Native Americans."


See also

*
Arlington Springs Man The Arlington Springs man is a set of Late Pleistocene human remains discovered in 1959 on Santa Rosa Island, one of the Channel Islands located off the coast of Southern California. The Arlington Springs archeological site is protected within n ...
– * Chan Hol * Eve of Naharon *
List of unsolved deaths This list of unsolved deaths includes well-known cases where: * The cause of death could not be officially determined. * The person's identity could not be established after they were found dead. * The cause is known, but the manner of death (homi ...
*
Kennewick Man Kennewick Man and Ancient One are the names generally given to the skeletal remains of a prehistoric Paleoamerican man found on a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, on July 28, 1996. It is one of the most complete ancient ske ...
– *
Settlement of the Americas The settlement of the Americas began when Paleolithic hunter-gatherers entered North America from the North Asian Mammoth steppe via the Beringia land bridge, which had formed between northeastern Siberia and western Alaska due to the lowering o ...


Notes


References

{{Reflist Human remains (archaeological) Paleo-Indian archaeological sites in Mexico Paleo-Indian period Oldest human remains in the Americas Sistema Sac Actun and Sistema Dos Ojos Unsolved deaths