Researchers reported on Thursday that a Stone Age graveyard in the Sahara, known as Gobero, is filled with the remains of people, fish, and crocodiles who lived in the region when the desert briefly turned green. The site, discovered in Niger in 2000 by a team led by University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno, contains at least 200 graves from two separate settlements that were 1,000 years apart. The discovery was made while the team was searching for dinosaur fossils. The most striking discovery is a woman and two children, their arms intertwined, buried with flowers approximately 5,000 years ago. The Kiffians, tall hunter-gatherers, left the area during a drought around 8,000 years ago. The Tenerians, smaller people who settled in the area between 7,000 and 4,500 years ago, were hunters, herders, and fishers. Both groups left behind artifacts such as tools, fishhooks, ceramics, and jewelry. Chris Stojanowski, a bioarchaeologist from Arizona State University working on the site, stated that it is difficult to believe that two very different groups of people are burying their dead in the same location. The Sahara, the largest desert in the world for thousands of years, experienced changes in its climate due to shifts in the Earth's orbit around 12,000 years ago, bringing monsoons further north temporarily. The team analyzed tooth enamel, pollen, bones, soil, and tools to determine the age of the site, artifacts, and remains. The researchers concluded that the data from Gobero, along with other sites in North Africa, show that we are only just starting to comprehend the intricate history of biosocial evolution in the Sahara amidst significant climate changes.