Mexican government says train poses no threat to skeleton

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said Thursday that a prehistoric human skeleton found recently in a flooded cave system along the country’s Caribbean coast was actually registered by the institute in 2019 and would not be threatened by a nearby tourist train project. Earlier this week, archaeologist Octavio del Rio said he and fellow diver Peter Broger saw the shattered skull and skeleton partly covered by sediment in a cave. Del Rio, who has worked with the institute in the past but who is not currently affiliated, said Thursday the fact that the discovery was made in 2019, but still had not been analyzed, illustrated how long it takes to explore and investigate the extensive cave systems in the train’s path. Some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered in the sinkhole caves known as “cenotes” on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, and experts say some of those caves are threatened by the Mexican government’s Maya Train tourism project.