Overview
- The peer-reviewed study digitally reassembled shattered facial bones from the 3.67-million-year-old Australopithecus found at Sterkfontein Caves in South Africa.
- Researchers scanned the skull at the UK’s Diamond Light Source and built a 21-micron 3D model by virtually separating and repositioning five bone blocks.
- Comparative analyses indicate closer facial proportions to East African Australopithecus, with relatively large orbits, rather than to a younger South African specimen.
- Authors propose Africa functioned as a connected evolutionary landscape, while stressing the limited sample and the focus on facial anatomy.
- The reconstruction is preliminary, species assignment remains debated, and other regions—especially the braincase—require further virtual correction; the model will be shared for reanalysis.