1,300-year-old poop reveals pathogens plagued prehistoric people in Mexico's 'Cave of the Dead Children'

A piece of dried feces sits on a table with a scale bar.

Scientists analyzing 1,300-year-old human feces from the Cave of the Dead Children in Mexico have discovered that people often dealt with nasty intestinal infections more than a millennium ago.

"Working with these ancient samples was like opening a biological time capsule, with each one revealing insight into human health and daily life," study lead author Drew Capone, an assistant professor of environmental health at Indiana University, said in a statement.