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Reconstructing a Neanderthal Skull That Was Flattened Like a Pancake

Researchers rebuilt flattened, fragmented skull, then created a digital picture of the Neanderthal woman’s face.

By Paul Smaglik
May 3, 2024 8:30 PMMay 3, 2024 8:29 PM
Unflattened Skull of a Neanderthal
Emma Pomeroy (University of Cambridge) with the skull of Shanidar Z in the Henry Wellcome Building in Cambridge, home of the University’s Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies. (Credit: BBC Studios/Jamie Simonds)

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Scientists recently reconstructed a Neanderthal skull that was both flattened like a pancake and shattered into pieces. The team then also used digital technology to create a 3-D approximation of the 75,000-year-old female Neanderthal’s face.

The archeologists suspect the woman’s head had been crushed — possibly by rockfall — after her death. Then layers of sediment deposited over thousands of years compacted it. The skull was about an inch thick when the archeologists found it.

Reconstructive Surgery

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