The face of the first man has been revealed 300,000 years after his death.
Scientists reconstructed the oldest known Homo sapien skull found in Morocco, which was missing the lower jaw when it was uncovered in 2017.
The team created a digital scan of the cranium, layering it with soft tissue and skin to produce a man described as being ‘strong and serene.’
The ancient skull proved Homo sapiens appeared 100,000 years earlier than thought and migrated out of Africa before previous evidence had suggested.
The life-like image was produced by researchers who reconstructed the skull belonging to the oldest known Homo sapien
Brazilian graphics expert Cicero Moraes completed the recreation after obtaining data from researchers at the Max Planck Institute.
‘Initially, I scanned the skull in 3D, using data provided by the researchers of Max Planck Institute.
‘Then I proceeded with the facial approximation, which consisted of crossing several approaches, such as anatomical deformation.
‘This is where the tomography of a modern human is used, adapting it so that the donor’s skull becomes the Jebel Irhoud skull and the deformation ends up generating a compatible face.’
The skull’s name stems from the site in which it was found.
The donor skull was also digitized and chosen because it appeared the closest to that of the ancient skull, allowing researchers to fill in the missing parts of the ancient remains.
Further data from modern humans was used to predict the thickness of the soft tissue, and the likely projection of the nose and other facial structures.
Scientists reconstructed the oldest known Homo sapien skull found in Morocco, which was missing the lower jaw when it was uncovered in 2017
The team created a digital scan of the cranium, layering it with soft tissue and skin to produce a man described as being ‘strong and serene’
‘The final face is the interpolation of all this data, which generates two groups of images, one objective, with more technical elements, without hair and in greyscale,’ Cicero said.
‘The other is artistic, with pigmentation of the skin and hair.’
However, the true gender of the individual is unknown due to the absence of pelvic bones.
The skull was unearthed by researchers at the Max Planck Institute, finding it alongside stone tools and animal bones at Jebel Irhoud.
Previously, the oldest Homo sapiens fossils were known from the site of Omo Kibish in Ethiopia, dated to 195,000 years ago.
However, the true gender of the individual is unknown due to the absence of pelvic bones
That led most researchers to believe that all humans living today descended from a population that lived in East Africa around this time.
Professor Jean-Jacques Hublin, who led the study, said: ‘We used to think that there was a cradle of mankind 200,000 years ago in east Africa, but our new data reveal that Homo sapiens spread across the entire African continent around 300,000 years ago.
‘Long before the out-of-Africa dispersal of Homo sapiens, there was dispersal within Africa.’
Jebel Irhous has been known since the 1960s for its human fossils, and the latest discovery brings the total number of remains to 22.
The team of researchers discovered skulls, teeth and long bones from at least five individuals – two adults, and three children.
