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This is the face of a Neanderthal child that lived 30 to 50,000 years ago. His or her fossil remains were found at the Devil’s Tower site on Gibraltar in 1928 by Dorothy Garrod.

University of Zurich researchers Marcia Ponce de León and Christoph Zollikofer started this journey in time by scanning the preserved fragmentary skull remains with a medical CT scanner. Using their proprietary software, Form-IT, the missing pieces of the fossil scan data were then filled in to create a more complete digital model of the skull. The existing pieces of the fossil were mirror-imaged and otherwise digitally transformed according to biological criteria to fill in this missing data. The resulting nearly-complete three dimensional model of the skull was then populated with soft tissue volumes by using CT scan data from modern children of about the same age as determined by the teeth.

Once the three dimensional data were generated, a replica skull was fabricated using stereolithography. This physical reproduction of the complete skull, and the soft tissue thickness data, were used as the framework for the construction of the final sculpture by artist Elisabeth Daynes of Paris, France. Ms. Daynes selected eye and hair color, hair length, skin tone and other minor features. The model was fabricated in silicone to reproduce the texture of human skin, and the hair was inserted a single strand at a time.

In 1928, could Dorothy Garrod have conceived that through the application of any art and science it would be possible to see this face again?

For more info contact:

Christophe Zollikofer & Marcia Ponce de Leon University of Zurich +41-1-635-6745 +41-1-635-6809 FX University of Zurich, Computer Aided Paleontology Web Site - See also - Dr. Marcia Ponce de León's Home Page

Elisabeth Daynes Atelier Daynes 129 rue du Faubourg du Temple 75010 Paris, France 01.42.41.17.36 01.42.41.08.05 FX