largest graveyard discovered to date in the Sahara

In this undated photo released by the National Geographic, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno (R) and archaeologist Elena Garcea excavate adjacent burials at Gobero, Niger, the largest graveyard discovered to date in the Sahara. The largest Stone Age graveyard found in the Sahara, providing an unparalleled record of life when the region was green, was discovered in Niger by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and University of Chicago Professor Paul Sereno and his team during a dinosaur-hunting expedition. The site, dating back 10,000 years and called Gobero after the Tuareg name for the area, was brimming with skeletons of humans and animals, including large fish and crocodiles.

This undated handout photo provided by the National Geographic Society shows University of Chicago Paleontologist Paul Sereno stabilizes the nearly perfectly preserved skull of a Tenerian woman during excavation at the extraordinary archaeological site of Gobero in Niger.

This undated handout photo provided by the National Geographic Society shows a triple burial containing a woman and two children, their limbs entwined, discovered at the Gobero site during the 2006 field season.

This undated handout photo provided by the National Geographic Society shows this 11-year-old Tenerian girl who was buried wearing an upper-arm bracelet carved from the tusk of a hippo some 4,800 years ago.

This undated handout photo provided by the National Geographic Society, shows the skeletons and artifacts of the exceptional triple burial at Gobero preserved in this cast exactly as found by Paul Sereno, Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society.

This undated handout photo provided by the National Geographic Society shows zooarchaeologist Helene Jousse holding up a belly plate from a soft-shelled turtle found in a Tenerian garbage dump.