Origins of Earliest Americans: New Skeleton

Divers in the Yucatan discovered a  15 year old girl who is really 12 to 13,000 years old. They call her Naia and in this fascinating Washington Post story, they say "her remains may help determine the origins of the earliest Americans and finally solve the mystery of why they looked so dramatically different from the Native Americans of recent millennia."

In a scientific paper, scientists argue "that the discrepancy in appearance between the Paleoamericans and later Native Americans is most likely the result of recent, and relatively rapid, human evolution — and not the result of subsequent migrations of people into the Americas."

This might be great story for students to read when studying early America.

Be sure to click on the graphic in the story for some great images and charts.