The face of the first man has been revealed 300,000 years after his death.
Scientists reconstructed the oldest known Homo sapien skull found in Morocco, which was missing its lower jaw when it was discovered in 2017.
The team created a digital scan of the skull, covering it with soft tissue and skin to produce a man described as “strong and composed.”
The ancient skull showed that Homo sapiens appeared 100,000 years earlier than previously thought and emigrated from Africa earlier than previous evidence suggested.
The realistic image was produced by researchers who reconstructed the skull of the oldest known Homo sapien.
Brazilian graphics expert Cicero Moraes completed the recreation after obtaining data from researchers at the Max Planck Institute.
‘At first I scanned the skull in 3D, using data provided by researchers at the Max Planck Institute.
‘Then I proceeded with the facial approximation, which consisted of crossing several approaches, such as anatomical deformation.
‘This is where the tomography of a modern human is used, adapting it so that the donor skull becomes the Jebel Irhoud skull and the deformation ends up generating a compatible face.’
The skull’s name comes from the site where it was found.
The donor skull was also digitized and chosen because it appeared closest to that of the ancient skull, allowing researchers to fill in missing parts of the ancient remains.
Further data from modern humans were used to predict the soft tissue thickness and likely projection of the nose and other facial structures.
Scientists reconstructed the oldest known Homo sapien skull found in Morocco, which was missing its lower jaw when it was discovered in 2017.
The team created a digital scan of the skull, covering it with soft tissue and skin to produce a man described as “strong and composed.”
“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 gray scale,” said Cicero.
“The other is artistic, with skin and hair pigmentation.”
However, the true sex of the individual is unknown due to the absence of pelvic bones.
The skull was unearthed by researchers from the Max Planck Institute and found along with stone tools and animal bones in Jebel Irhoud.
Previously, the oldest Homo sapiens fossils were known from the Omo Kibish site in Ethiopia, dating back to 195,000 years ago.
However, the true sex of the individual is unknown due to the absence of pelvic bones.
That led most researchers to believe that all humans alive today are descended from a population that lived in East Africa at the time.
Professor Jean-Jacques Hublin, who led the study, said: “We used to think there was a cradle of humanity 200,000 years ago in East Africa, but our new data reveals that Homo sapiens spread across the African continent ago. about 300,000 years.” .
“Long before the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa, there was dispersal within Africa.”
Jebel Irhous has been known since the 1960s for its human fossils, and the latest discovery brings the total number of remains to 22.
The team of researchers discovered skulls, teeth and long bones of at least five people: two adults and three children.