’Virtual fossil’ reveals last common ancestor of humans and Neanderthals

New digital techniques have allowed researchers to predict structural evolution of the skull in the lineage of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, in an effort to fill in blanks in the fossil record, and provide the first 3D rendering of their last common ancestor. The study suggests populations that led to the lineage split were older than previously thought. Our models are not the exact truth, but in the absence of fossils these new methods can be used to test hypotheses for any palaeontological question, whether it is horses or dinosaurs - Aurélien Mounier We know we share a common ancestor with Neanderthals, the extinct species that were our closest prehistoric relatives. But what this ancient ancestral population looked like remains a mystery, as fossils from the Middle Pleistocene period, during which the lineage split, are extremely scarce and fragmentary. Now, researchers have applied digital "morphometrics" and statistical algorithms to cranial fossils from across the evolutionary story of both species, and recreated in 3D the skull of the last common ancestor of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals for the first time. The "virtual fossil" has been simulated by plotting a total of 797 "landmarks" on the cranium of fossilised skulls stretching over almost two million years of Homo history - including a 1.6 million-year-old Homo erectus fossil, Neanderthal crania found in Europe and even 19th century skulls from the Duckworth collection in Cambridge. The landmarks on these samples provided an evolutionary framework from which researchers could predict a timeline for the skull structure, or 'morphology', of our ancient ancestors.