The combination of the discovery story — cave divers finding an ancient girl at the bottom of an underwater cave — and the scientific significance of the DNA findings made for exactly the kind of story that science journalism is well-equipped to tell.

The coverage was generally accurate in its broad outlines, though the specific scientific nuances — the difference between mitochondrial haplogroup and full genome, the distinction between morphological continuity and replacement, the specific claims the paper made and did not make — were sometimes lost in translation to shorter formats.

The headline version of the story — ancient girl found in Mexico, DNA proves Native Americans were always there — was not wrong, but it was simplified in ways that could mislead a reader who took it to mean more than it said.

For Indigenous communities in Mexico and more broadly in the Americas, the coverage of the Hoyo Negro findings was received with mixed responses.