3D printer lets Thunder Bay professor hold 'bones' of human-like species
Matt Tocheri says holding exact replicas of fossils more helpful than looking at digital images
A new 3D printer at Lakehead University will allow a leading anthropology professor to handle the bones of now-extinct species without any need to worry about causing damage to the fragile finds.
Matt Tocheri says the printer, funded by from Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the province, is very important for his work.
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One of his current areas of study as the Canada Research Chair in human origins is homo floresiensis, an evolutionary cousin of humans that lived on the Indonesian island of Flores, home to Komodo dragons.
And thanks to the 3D printer, he has a "skull" complete with teeth that he brought to CBC Thunder Bay's studio.
"These fossils are extremely fragile and so traditional casting and moulding techniques can't be done because it's too likely that'll damage the original specimens," he told Superior Morning. "And these fossils are irreplaceable and they're the only voice of these individuals in this species that's left, and so we have to treat that with the utmost respect."
The tool-using species walked on two legs, was only about a metre tall and lived until around 50,000 years ago — the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms.
"They survived alongside Komodo dragons for up to probably a million years on that island, until roughly the time that modern humans ... began to disperse around the world and colonized Australia," Tocheri said, noting that the species were on Earth at the same time as humans, though it's not clear if they ever met.
Tocheri said the original skull is at the National Centre for Archaeology in Indonesia. It was recreated by taking the bones to a Jakarta hospital for a CT scan.
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He's also already printed fingers from Homo naledi, a recently discovered ancient human ancestor.
"Having an actual model in your hand is a big difference ... from seeing it on the computer screen," he said, noting that he can scale up the printed bones to see how the evolution of body size might affect the shapes, or he can scale down a laser-scanned copy of the cave to discuss the sedimentation process.
"It's really a huge help," he said.