Scuba Divers Find Oldest Remains September 16, 2010 by lukesheppard

One of the oldest skeletons in the Americas has been retrieved after being discovered by scuba divers in an undersea cave, researchers have said. The skeleton nicknamed the “Young Man of Chan Hol” was thought to have been laid to rest more than 10,000 years ago in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The skeleton, found by scuba divers in the underwater cave network of Chan Hol, could help researchers find out who the first Americans were and how they arrived. The Chan Hol caves are located along the Caribbean Coast about 80 miles south of Cancun. The Ice Age skeleton remains were found four years ago when German scuba divers entered the cave mouth 30 feet underwater. The scuba divers made their way through 1,800 feet of dark tunnels lined with jagged rock formations until they found the remains. After the discovery they informed archaeologists in Quintana Roo, the surrounding state. The bones have been studied underwater by researchers led by Arturo Gonzalez, director of the Desert Museum in Saltillo, Mexico, for the last three years. But scuba-diving researchers raised them for lab study in late August after they were sealed in bags filled with cave water and placed in plastic bins.