Scientists from Japan have used machine learning for the first time to identify a new figure among the ancient motifs of Peru's Nazca Lines. The illustration, known as a geoglyph, is thought to date to between 100 BC and 500 AD, and was made by removing the dark stones of the Nazca Desert to reveal the white sand beneath. It's small, just five meters in height, and it shows a humanoid figure grasping a cane or club. Like the other drawings in the Nazca Desert, its exact function is unknown, but its discovery next to an ancient path suggests it might have been used as a waypoint. "It is in an area that we often investigated, but we did not know the geoglyph existed," Professor Makato Sakai, the leader of a team from Yamagata University that conducted the research, told The Verge over email.

Fox News Flash top headlines for Nov. 18 are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com Over 140 mysterious new geoglyphs have been discovered in Nazca, Peru, including strange'humanoid' figures. Researchers from Japan's Yamagata University discovered 142 new glyphs. An additional new geoglyph was discovered using artificial intelligence from IBM Japan and the tech giant's Watson supercomputer, which helped researchers reveal the location of the humanoid figure, who appears to be brandishing some form of club.