The enigmatic "cenotes" of Mexico's Yucatán peninsula

Brut America

Some of these sinkholes may have been formed by the impact of a meteorite around 65 million years ago.   Here are the "cenotes" of Mexico's Yucatán peninsula.

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00:00The Yucatan Peninsula is one of the natural treasures of Mexico.

00:22There are more than 5,000 recorded cenotes.

00:26They are unique in the world.

00:28It's a world that is a little bit unknown.

00:30For the Mayans, it was the entrance to the underworld.

00:32Xibalba.

00:58The cenote is a hole in the ground full of water.

01:24It's an underground system, it's a river that flows slowly to find a way out in the sea.

01:31There are fish, there are birds that live in the cenotes, there are insects.

01:54And that's what we found, it's a gigantic oquedad within one of the flooded caves of the Yucatan Peninsula.

02:12In the bottom of the black hole we find remains of late Pleitosinian animals.

02:18Most of the animals were extinct for at least 10,000 years.

02:24We were also lucky enough to discover the skeleton of Naya,

02:34and now we know that this is the oldest and most complete skeleton found in the American continent.

02:54For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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