Scientists have restored the face of one of the extinct human relatives

Brazilian graphics experts have reconstructed the face of one of humans' extinct relatives, Homo floresiensis. Scientists found his skeleton back in 2003 in a cave on the island of Flores (Indonesia).

In the new research it is noted that it was an adult female that lived about 18,000 years ago. She had a small head, and her height was only 106 centimeters. Due to their small size, archaeologists have nicknamed this species hobbits. In many respects they differed from the known hominids.

When scientists reproduce human faces from skulls, they are using data from living people. This is necessary to determine the thickness of tissues in various areas of the head. However, in this case, they had to come up with a new approach, since it was necessary to restore the appearance of an extinct species, which had not been visualized before.

The task was not easy, but it was lucky that the discovered skull was well preserved. He is missing only small parts between the eyebrows and in the region of the nasal bone.

The researchers created two variants of the face of H. floresiensis. The first is a neutral black and white image of an ape-like person with a wide nose, while the second is a more stylized version with facial hair.