Extreme drought has revealed human remains that harken back to the days when the mob ran the Vegas strip, but a drought depleted Minnesota River has revealed human remains about 8,000 years older. Two unnamed kayakers found a bone — determined to be part of a skull — near Sacred Heart in what is now Minnesota last year and turned it over to law enforcement thinking it may belong to a missing person.

While not connected to an open criminal investigation, the young Native American man appears to have lived a violent life with a depression on the skull indicative of blunt force trauma according to Sheriff Scott Hable. However, Kathleen Blue, a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State University, told the New York Times the rounded edges of the wound could indicate he survived the injury. Severe drought hit Minnesota last year, fueling wildfires, and exposing parts of the Minnesota River previously underwater. The remains are expected to be returned to local Native American tribes. (Native American remains: MPR, New York Times $, Washington Post $; Organized crime: New York Times $; Climate Signals background: Drought)