Computer reconstruction of human fossil sheds light on our origins

The fossil of Homo habilis , or 'handy man', has undergone state-of-the-art computer reconstruction, revealing new information about its jaw shape which indicates the species has older evolutionary roots than previously thought and shows that three different Homo species existed between 2.1 and 1.6 million years ago, according to UCL researchers who led the study. The original handy man fossil, Olduvai Hominid 7 (OH 7), was found in 1.8 million-year-old layers exposed in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania and consists of a distorted lower jaw, a partial braincase made up of many broken fragments and hand bones of a single individual. Since it was first published in 1964, scientists have tried to work out which other fossils also belong to Homo habilis , but this has been challenging due to the preservation of OH 7. The researchers used computed tomography (CT) and state-of-the-art 3D imaging technology to digitize, tease apart and reassemble the pieces virtually. The findings shed light on the early evolution of the human lineage and uncover what makes Homo habilis truly distinctive - its primitive jaw shape. Lead author Professor Fred Spoor (UCL Cell and Developmental Biology and the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology), said: "From painstakingly reconstructing the fossil fragments of OH 7, we found an unexpected mixture of features that allowed us to compare it with other fossils for the first time.