Naia (skeleton)

Naia is a 12,000- to 13,000-year-old human skeleton of a teenage female that was found on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The 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 Sac Actun cave system. The remains have been described as the "oldest, most complete and genetically intact human skeleton in the New World". Her name is derived from a type of water nymph in Greek mythology - the Naiads.

The morphological traits of Naia's skull have been regarded as similar to those of Kennewick Man, a set of well-preserved Paleoamerican remains discovered in 1996, and other Paleomerican skeletons. DNA testing of Naia has classified the MtDNA Subhaplotype as D1, which is common in modern Native Americans. Subhaplotype D1 mtDNA has been found among the Ulchi of the lower Amur region near Sakhalin Island. Ancient skeletons on Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan, have also revealed MtDNA with a classification of Subhaplotype D1. However, some argue that the origin of Subhaplotype D1 was in Beringia. The purported Beringian origin of Subhaplotype D1 has led some to the opinion that Naia's heritage is with the migration out of Siberia to Beringia as part of a homogeneous founder population of Native Americans.

See also

• Eve of Naharon
• Sistema Sac Actun
• Cenote
• Quintana Roo Speleological Survey