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Fossil Skulls Assembled to Recreate Faces of Our 7-Million-Year Old Ancestors

by Nancy Needhima on Jan 9 2012 1:38 PM

Fossil Skulls Assembled to Recreate Faces of Our 7-Million-Year Old Ancestors
Availing the forensic technology researchers have rebuilt faces of some of the most remote members of the human evolutionary 'family' of ancestors dating back to seven million years.
The 27 model heads displayed in Dresden, Germany, were created using fossil remains, and includes a glimpse of sahelanthropus tchadensis, an ancestor dated to about seven million years ago, when our 'hominid 'ancestors' first originated in Africa, the Daily Mail reported.

Salhelanthropus tchadensis dates to a time before humans and chimpanzees, our closest evolutionary cousins, became genetically separate.

"Using forensic anthropological methods, the various hominids were recreated not as characteristic ideals, but as individuals," said the museum.

"Each one tells its own story: where they lived, what they ate, their likely cause of death and much more," it stated.

A skull of Australopithecus africanus found in South Africa was used to rebuild a face of an ancestor who lived around two million years ago, known as Plesianthropus transvaalensis.

Some of the oldest spears ever found are also on display - dating back 400,000 years.

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Source-ANI


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