Australopithecus africanus: Hominin #4 - 1/88 Limited Edition

Format: 2160 x 2160 px - MP4 Looping video - 150 dpi

This Hominin bust by the Smithsonian paleoartist John Gurche is built with clay over a cast or 3D print of an ancient skull, from which a silicone mold is taken and the face painted into the mold. Acrylic eyes, and bear or human hair implanted manually and individually.

Materials: clay, casting, 3D printing, silicone, acrylic, paint, bear hair, human hair.

Medium: digital photography, post-production coloring, animation.

When Raymond Dart announced the discovery of the first-known skull of Australopithecus in 1924, he gave it this name. He recognized two human-like features in its very apelike skull; small canine teeth and signs that the head was held on a vertical neck as in upright posture. These characters are still used today to identify hominins with otherwise ape-like anatomy.

The reconstruction of the head of this species began in 1986 and reached its final form in 2008, making it by far the longest reconstruction John Gurche has ever worked on (possibly the longest in human history). During this time, as new information became available, the face changed. Some of this information came from great ape and human dissections. As he learned more about facial anatomy and new discoveries came to light, it became clear he had wrongly assumed that since this species is more closely related to humans than it is to any ape, human anatomy would make a better model. Over 22 years, the face de-evolved. He stripped away more humanlike characteristics in the nose and mouth. The result is a more ape-like head, but still more subtly human than A. afarensis.

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