The skeletal remains found on the floor of Hoyo Negro were those of a young female, estimated to have been between fifteen and sixteen years old at the time of her death.

She was anatomically modern — fully human, not an archaic member of our genus but a Homo sapiens like us — and her skeleton, while incomplete and damaged by the twelve thousand years she had spent on the cave floor, was extensive enough to provide meaningful physical information about her.

Her teeth were in remarkable condition for their age, well-preserved enough to extract DNA from — a fact that would prove crucial to the scientific analysis that eventually transformed the significance of her discovery.

Her skull was intact enough to provide morphological data — information about the shape and structure of her cranium, her face, and her jaw that could be compared to the skulls of other ancient and modern populations.