Young Girl Who Falls to Her Death into a Yucatán Cave Unlocks Mysteries of the Americas

The first face of the first Americans belongs to an unlucky teenage girl who fell to her death in a Yucatán cave some 12,000 to 13,000 years ago. Her bad luck is science’s good fortune.

In 2007, a team of Mexican divers discovered an immense submerged cavern they named Hoyo Negro, the “black hole,” that contained the nearly complete human skeleton of the girl and a bed of prehistoric bones. Together these remnants may help explain an enduring mystery about the peopling of the Americas. The earliest Americans were a rough bunch. It appears that these men fought among themselves—often and violently. Women were much smaller than the men, with signs of malnourishment and domestic abuse.

SOURCE
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com

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Jessica Deli

Jessica Deli has been Central Region Coordinator for the NCRC since 2012 but before then she had already made her mark as a rescue specialist and cave conservationist all over the US. Deli has been involved with the National Cave Rescue Commission since 2005. With a simple Google search you will find her name everywhere participating in cave rescue training efforts. She appeared in the New York Grotto 2008 report for the Cave rescue Seminar and 2013 Orientation to Cave Rescue. In 2006 Kansas City Grotto mentioned her in the Orientation to Cave Rescue at Indiana University. Central Indiana Grotto enjoyed her demos in 2012 at the club's Vertical training. At the 2011 NSS Convention she presented "Atmospheric Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide Levels in Caves: What is Normal? Preliminary Results" with Anmar Mirza. And in 2005 she was involved in the Buckner's Cave clean-up project at Indiana University Bloomington. Deli's credentials in civilian life are impressive too! T

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