World’s First Human Looked ‘Strong and Serene’ After Facial Reconstruction From Ancient Skull

Scientists created the appearance of the first human by reconstructing the skull found in Morocco hundreds of years after his death.

Face of First Human Reconstructed From Ancient Skull

The face of the world's first human was unveiled 300,000 years after his death. Based on a facial reconstruction, the human looked "strong and serene."

The discovery of the ancient skull demonstrated that Homo sapiens left Africa before previously believed and that they arrived 100,000 years earlier than previously believed. Brazilian 3D designer and expert Cicero Moraes finished the reconstruction using information provided by Max Planck Institute researchers.

First, he used information from Max Planck Institute researchers to perform a 3D scan of the skull. Then, he proceeded with the facial approximation, which crossed several approaches, such as anatomical deformation.

He employed current human tomography and modified it so that the donor's skull became the Jebel Irhoud skull, and the deformity ultimately produced a compatible face. The name of the skull comes from the location where it was discovered.

To fill in the gaps in the ancient bones, researchers digitized and selected the donor skull because it most resembled the old skull. Using additional data from modern people, they predicted the soft tissue thickness and the expected projection of the nose and other facial components.

According to Cicero, the interpolation of all this data results in the final face, which produces two sets of images, one objective, lacking hair and in grayscale, and with more technical characteristics. The other artistically uses skin and hair pigmentation.

However, because the person's pelvic bones are absent, it is unknown what gender they are. Max Planck Institute researchers discovered the skull in Morocco in 2017. They also found stone tools and animal bones in the area.

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Neanderthal Looked Like Modern Human

Moraes also did another facial reconstruction of a Neanderthal discovered by a priest inside a cave in La Chapelle-aux-Saints. The man was believed to be about 40 years old and lived between 47,000 and 56,000 years ago.

Moraes recreated the elderly man's face using computed tomography (CT) scans. He measured along the Frankfort horizontal plane, a line extending from the top of the ear hole to the bottom of the eye socket, using a human skull removed from a donor database. It gave the researchers the framework they required to form the face.

Subsequently, soft-tissue thickness markers from living human donors were used to digitally create the skin and muscles. They then gave the approximation features, such as skin and hair color, to make it seem more natural whether these colors were established by careful guesswork or by a DNA analysis needed to be made clear by the research.

Just like the recent project, he also generated two images. One was more objective, with just a bust and in a sepia tone. One picture showed a bald and older man. The second snap was more speculative and colorful, featuring a man with a thick beard and hair.

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