The 10,000-year-old remains of a child have been found in an underwater cave in Mexico.

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A pre-Aztec civilization used human bones to make various tools and utensils.

The discovery comes from a new analysis of 5,000 bone fragments found in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, a large archaeological site about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Mexico City (see map).

Femurs (thigh bones), tibias (shinbones), and human skulls were transformed into household items shortly after death, noted team leader Abigail Meza Peñaloza of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

“The Teotihuacanos used different stones as knives to finely remove the flesh and muscles from the bones,” Meza Peñaloza said. The bodies had to be as fresh as possible, she added, because after a person dies, his or her bone quickly becomes too fragile to sculpt.

Rebecca Storey, a Teotihuacan expert at the University of Houston, said that making utensils out of human bone fits with the ancient culture.

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Archaeologists in Mexico are hoping to tunnel into an Aztec ruler’s tomb in Mexico.

Archaeologists found some of the richest and most unusual Aztec offerings ever in excavations under a mammoth slab depicting an earth goddess and said Wednesday they hope to uncover an emperor’s tomb nearby.

The seven offerings of strange and unparalleled oddities found under the stone slab depicting the goddess Tlaltecuhtli include the skeleton of a dog or wolf dressed in turquoise ear plugs, jadeite necklaces and golden bells on its feet.

The 4-meter (13-foot) long carving of Tlaltecuhtli (tlahl-tay-KOO-tlee) was found in 2006 near the edge of the Templo Mayor pyramid in downtown Mexico City. It was lifted out in 2007 and archaeologists began digging underneath.

On Wednesday, the huge stone monument was put on display for reporters before its first public exhibition. The sculpture itself challenges the public perception of Aztec monuments as bare stone-colored carvings, because it preserves a half-dozen original colors in which it was originally painted, including rich ochre, red, yellow and blue hues.

Archaeologist Leonardo Lopez Lujan said the presence of shells from distant seas, gold earrings and collars as well as strange wooden daggers found under the slab suggest that a very important person is buried nearby.

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The Mayans who lived in the ancient city of Palenque knew the land they lived on used to be underwater due to fossils found in the region.

Fossils found at the ancient city of Palenque, Chiapas shows Maya people conceived their beliefs of the underworld from them, associating the beliefs with water. To the Palenque, these fossils were convincing proof that the land was covered by the sea a long time ago, and from this they created their ideas on the origin of the world.

A three-year study by archaeologist Martha Cuevas and geologist Jesus Alvarado, was aimed at connecting the symbolism made by ancient Mayans to remains from Prehistoric times.

The interdisciplinary investigation, by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), concentrates on 31 specimens found at the Palenque Archaeological Zone which they believe are vital to the study of Maya cosmogony.

The 31 fossils discovered so far are from different periods, with the oldest from the Paleocene Era, nearly 63 million years ago.  The fossils, from different marine animals and shark teeth and stingray spines, were used in ritual context during the Late Classic Period (600-850AD).  Most often they are discovered in a funerary context: as part of funerary offerings, used by the Mayans as tombstones or offered to deities.

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A 72 million-year-old armoured dinosaur with horns over 4ft long has been found in Mexico.

The 72 million-year-old rhino-sized plant-eater Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna was an ancestor of the famous three-horned Triceratops.
Like other horned dinosaurs, or ceratopsids, it had a large bony plate behind its head which would have acted as a shield.

Coahuilaceratops’ most notable feature are the two enormous horns that jut out from above its eyes.

Fossil bones of an adult animal, which weighed four to five tons, measured around 22ft, and stood six to seven feet tall at the shoulder and hip, were recovered from a site in the state of Coahuila, southern Mexico, in 2003.

Remains of a juvenile were also found nearby.

Scientists believe the horns were most probably used in mating contests rather than to fight off predators.

Lead researcher Dr Mark Loewen, from the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City, said: ‘The horned dinosaurs are an extraordinary example of vertebrate evolution.

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