Be Brief: Skull

Brief Skull Main
Brief Skull Main
3-D printed skulls made in the J. Robert Van Pelt and John and Ruanne Opie Library help social science students observe and touch distinguishing features.
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In anthropology, examining a photo of the 1.5-million-year-old skull of the Nariokotome Boy is just not the same as holding it in your hand.

Who would let an undergraduate palm a priceless fossil? Probably no one. But if it's a 3-D printed replica, then the whole class can have a turn. Using open source files from sites like Morphosource.com, biological anthropologist Kelly Boyer Ontl teamed up with university library staff member John Schneiderhan to process the primate skull image files and render life-like plastic casts with a Type A Machine Series 1 printer. The skulls are 3-D printed versions of living and extinct primate species, including some early human ancestors. Students compare brow ridges, teeth, cranial capacity, and other characteristics to better understand distinguishing features of different species. The challenge for printing the hands-on teaching aids is creating a model that is easy to print but doesn't lose so much resolution that the skull's distinct topographies blur.

From top to bottom: Leontopithecus genus, modeled after a type of a currently living lion tamarin; Colobus guereza, modeled after a currently living colobus monkey; Homo naledi, modeled after extinct specimens from South Africa's Rising Star Cave; Homo Erectus, modeled after the Nariokotome Boy (Turkana Boy), an extinct species.

Primate species vary not only by size but also other features like eye sockets, teeth, brow ridges, and brain cavities.
Primate species vary not only by size but also other features like eye sockets, teeth, brow ridges, and brain cavities.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.

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