Overview
- An international team led by Dr. Amélie Beaudet and Prof. Dominic Stratford digitally reassembled StW 573’s facial bones, reporting the results in Comptes Rendus Palevol.
- High‑resolution scans at the UK’s Diamond Light Source enabled a virtual model that corrected deformation and supported precise facial measurements.
- The study compared nine linear metrics and 3D shape across great apes and three Australopithecus fossils, finding closer affinities to Ethiopian specimens than to a younger South African example.
- Signals in the orbital region suggest possible selective pressures on eye morphology with implications for vision and ecology in early hominins.
- The authors caution that scarce complete faces and a face‑only focus make conclusions tentative, and they call for further virtual reconstructions, including of the braincase.