French team studies Narmada fossil
These days it's increasingly easy to keep track of what everybody else is doing. Consider this, from newKerala.com:
A French paleontology team is currently in Kolkata to study the only homo erectus skull found in India to find new insights into the over half million year old fossil, which has baffled Indian scientists for over 21 years.
The team joined by their Indian counterparts took a CT scan of the skull here, where it has been housed since it was first discovered by geologist Arun Sonakia in the village of Hathnora, near Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh in December 1982.
The scientists hope the CT scan data will allow then to complete the severely damaged and delicate skull by using advanced compute [sic] simulation.
Having gotten valuable insights into brain formation and structures like inner ear and sinuses, scientists could even be able to make complete 3D image of the specimen, which initially was mistaken for years as of a man known as the "Narmada Man".
...
"It is interesting for us and we want to compare it with discoveries of the same species in Europe ...we have discovered items during our excavations and we want to compare with fossil discovered in China, in Java and some fossil in Africa also," said Madam De Lumley, who is leading the French team.
This should make for some interesting work. It would be exciting if the EU starts putting some of this data on The Neanderthal Tools!
John Hawks Department of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin—Madison
Copyright © 2007 John Hawks