National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Photo: Did Earliest Human Ancestors Have More Apelike Faces?


Email to a Friend	<< Back to Full Story

The original reconstruction done by hand (left) of a 1.9-million-year-old skull found in Kenya shows a relatively flat face and large brain case. The profile has puzzled some scientists, because it suggests that an early human had more modern features than any other species living at the time.

Now a controversial computer reconstruction of the same skull (right) has revised the profile, giving the specimen a more protruding jaw and a smaller brain.

Image courtesy NYU