Paleontologist Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago stabilizes a nearly perfect preserved skull of a Tenerian, nomadic people that lived 6,500 to 4,500 years ago when the Sahara was an oasis. (Mike Hettwer / National Geographic Society)
Archaeologists believe these skeletons, with interlocked fingers, are those of a mother and two children. The triple burial is part of a site in Niger called Gobero. (Mike Hettwer / National Geographic Society)
Archaeologist Helene Jousse holds up a belly plate from a soft-shelled turtle found in a Tenerian garbage dump. (Mike Hettwer / National Geographic Society)
A scientist uncovers an 11-year-old Tenerian girl, who was buried wearing an upper-arm bracelet carved from the tusk of a hippo. (Mike Hettwer / National Geographic Society)
A triple burial of a woman and two children, their limbs entwined, was discovered at the Gobero site during the 2006 field season. (Mike Hettwer / National Geographic Society)
