A Stone Age burial ground on the shores of a dried-up lake in the Sahara desert is filled with the remains of people, fish, and crocodiles that lived during a brief period when the desert was green, according to researchers. The site, known as Gobero in Niger, is around 10,000 years old and was discovered in 2000. University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno, who led the research team, said they initially found the site while searching for dinosaur fossils. The discovery of the graves, artifacts, and bones of both humans and animals provided evidence of a green Sahara in the past. The site contains around 200 graves from two separate settlements that existed 1,000 years apart. A woman and two children, their arms intertwined, were buried on a bed of flowers approximately 5,000 years ago, in what is considered one of the most striking discoveries. The older group, known as Kiffians, were tall and robust hunter-gatherers who left the area during a drought around 8,000 years ago. A second group, the Tenerians, settled in the area between 7,000 and 4,500 years ago. They were smaller in stature and engaged in hunting, herding, and fishing. Both groups left behind various artifacts such as tool kits, fishhooks, ceramics, and jewelry. Chris Stojanowski, a bioarchaeologist from Arizona State University, stated that it is difficult to imagine two more biologically distinct groups of people burying their dead in the same location. The Sahara, the world's largest desert for thousands of years, experienced changes in the Earth's orbit 12,000 years ago that brought monsoons further north temporarily. The team at the site collected samples of tooth enamel, pollen, bones, soil, and tools to determine the dates of the site, artifacts, and remains. The researchers concluded in their report that the data from Gobero, along with other sites in North Africa, suggest a complex history of biosocial evolution in response to significant climate changes in the Sahara.