Meet 'Jebel Irhoud': Scientists reveal face of first homo sapien from 300,000 years ago
What first human looks like
The face of one of the earliest known homo sapiens, the oldest known human, has been revealed 300,000 years after his death.
The discovery of Jebel Irhoud remains, named after the Moroccan site where they were discovered, revolutionised our understanding of human history.
What is so important about the discovery?
It helped push back the lineage of Homo sapiens by 100,000 years. This finding showed that our ancestors left the "cradle of mankind" in East Africa far earlier than previously thought, spreading across the continent.
Scientists have reconstructed the face of our oldest known ancestor using the shape of their skull and donor data.
This discovery and reconstruction provide a fascinating glimpse into the appearance of our ancient ancestors. The study has been published in 3D computer graphics journal OrtogOnLineMag.
Brazilian graphics expert Cicero Moraes, who led the recreation, described the resulting face as "strong and serene."
He explained, "Initially, I scanned the skull in 3D, using data provided by the researchers of Max Planck Institute. Then I proceeded with the facial approximation, which consisted of crossing several approaches, such as anatomical deformation."
Moraes used tomography from a modern human, adapting it, so the donor's skull matched the Jebel Irhoud skull. This process involved predicting soft tissue thickness and the projection of facial features.
An adult male with a low body mass index contributed the donor data.
While the scientists aren't sure about the first human's gender, Moraes said that he chose to give the skeleton a male face due to the robust and masculine features of the skull.
"The final face is the interpolation of all this data, which generates two groups of images, one objective, with more technical elements, without hair and in greyscale. The other is artistic, with pigmentation of the skin and hair," said Cicero.
Moraes said that the Jebel Irhoud skull itself is a composite of various fossils, and an "excellent and quite coherent, anatomically speaking."
According to the Max Planck Institute, the Jebel Irhoud remains present a "modern-looking face and teeth, and a large but more archaic-looking braincase."
(With inputs from agencies)
