A new facial approximation offers insight into one of humankind's extinct relatives, Homo floresiensis.
In 2003, archaeologists discovered human-like skeletal remains inside a cave in Indonesia. Upon closer inspection, they determined that the individual — most likely female — had an abnormally small head and was of short stature, standing only 3 feet, 6 inches . Due to the individual's hobbit-like characteristics, which differed from those of known hominins, researchers classified the individual as Homo floresiensis, a smaller offshoot of Homo erectus, an extinct human ancestor.
When creating facial approximations, forensic artists often rely on a blend of scans of the individual skull and data points collected from human donor skulls to conduct a process known as"positioning of soft tissue thickness markers," which involves placing a series of small pins that correspond to the topography of the skin on the skull. This provides an idea of a face's general structure, according to a study published online on June 6.
Because the specimen's skull was virtually deformed and then was combined with another species — the chimps — the sex from the human database was no longer important, Moraes said.
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