Distribution of the main pre-Hispanic settlements in Mexico.

<p>Map: Archaeological pre-Hispanic sites taken INAH (<a href="http://www.geoportal.inah.gob.mx" target="_blank">http://www.geoportal.inah.gob.mx</a>) and major pre-Hispanic settlements taken from Kellog 2011, Sharer 1994, and Whitmore and Turner 2001 mapped over the ecoregions of Mexico (exact coordinates for each site located using GoogleEarth). The ecoregions that were most densely occupied at the time of the arrival of the first Europeans are marked in color. Inserted barchart: Mean Human Footprint value for (i) central and southern Mexico, (ii) the Yucatan peninsula, and (iii) the rest of Mexico. Different letters indicate values that differ significantly (<i>P</i> < 0.05) from each other.