Face of one of the earliest humans seen for the first time in 300,000 years
Digital reconstruction suggests an early human from Morocco may have looked remarkably similar to people today.
The face of one of the earliest known Homo sapiens has been digitally reconstructed from a fossilised skull discovered in Morocco more than half a century ago.
The skull was unearthed during mineral extraction at Jebel Irhoud in western Morocco in the 1960s. Initially identified as Neanderthal remains, the fossils were reassessed in 2017 and dated to around 315,000 years ago, making them among the oldest known Homo sapiens fossils, according to The Telegraph.
The latest reconstruction suggests that the individual may have looked surprisingly familiar to modern humans, despite living tens of thousands of years before Homo sapiens began spreading beyond Africa.
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Cicero Moraes, a forensic facial reconstruction specialist who led the project, said the man could potentially have passed unnoticed in a modern crowd.
"If he were dressed in modern clothes in the middle of a crowd, he would likely pass unnoticed at first glance," Moraes said.
He added that closer inspection might reveal a more pronounced brow and greater facial projection than those typically seen in modern humans.
Reconstructing the face
The researchers began with a 3D digital model of the Jebel Irhoud skull developed by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
They then reconstructed the soft tissue and other anatomical features using datasets from people of African ancestry.
The resulting reconstruction showed several differences from contemporary human faces, including a wider nose, a more prominent chin and a larger head circumference.
The team produced two versions: a greyscale model illustrating the underlying anatomy and a full-colour bust depicting the individual with dark skin and hair.
The fossil itself provides no direct evidence of skin, hair or eye colour. The researchers therefore described the dark hair and beard shown in the colour reconstruction as plausible features for a North African Homo sapiens of that period, rather than established characteristics.
Brain size close to modern humans
Researchers estimated the individual's brain volume at about 1,230 cubic centimetres, compared with an average of around 1,234 cubic centimetres for modern adult males.
The similarity suggests that overall brain volume in Homo sapiens may have changed relatively little over the past 300,000 years. However, brain volume alone cannot reveal differences in brain structure or cognitive function.
Prof Francesco Galassi, an anatomist at the University of Pavia in Italy and a co-author of the study, said the reconstruction provided a rare opportunity to visualise an ancient human.
"It is always a fantastic experience to see the completed face and observe how much it resembles and yet differs from today's population," he said.
What life was like at Jebel Irhoud
The reconstruction remains an approximation because no soft tissue from Homo sapiens living at Jebel Irhoud has survived.
Differences in muscle structure and other soft-tissue features could therefore have affected the individual's actual appearance. Researchers said, however, that the shape of the skull constrains the possible arrangement of muscles and other facial tissues, limiting how different the actual face could have been.
Excavations at Jebel Irhoud have uncovered 22 hominid fossil remains representing at least five Homo sapiens, including three adults, an adolescent and a child.
Archaeologists have also found stone tools, including scrapers, flakes and piercers, as well as evidence of fire use.
Animal remains found near the fossils bear signs of butchery, suggesting that the inhabitants hunted or processed a variety of animals. These included large and small species such as wildebeest, gazelles and zebra, while ostrich eggs were also among the resources available to the group.
The discoveries at Jebel Irhoud have helped researchers understand the early evolution of Homo sapiens in Africa, showing that anatomically modern humans were present on the continent long before the species expanded into other parts of the world.
