At Autodesk University 2011 Shaan Hurley introduced me to a representation of a very distant ancestor. It was a 3D fossil skull scan (perched on his shoulder in the photo right) assembled from cardboard contours created with 123D Make.
A few years ago I submitted my DNA to the National Geographic Genographic Project. The results (below) showed that my ancestral DNA left Africa about 60,000 years ago migrating across continents to the U.K. & Western Europe. From there a much more recent migration resulted in me being Kiwi born.
It’s interesting to think how much, and in some ways how little, the world and its inhabitants have changed over that time. A casino floor in Vegas is a strange place to contemplate that!
Until recently you had to travel to Africa to “meet the ancestors”. Now fossil records are being captured as high resolution photorealistic 3D models to view on-line. Shaan’s post details the technology, process and team doing this fine work. It goes beyond ‘reality’ to capture our shared past!
3D Fossil Exploration in a Virtual Laboratory - Between the Lines
Autodesk gave a grant to help world renowned Palaeontologist Louise Leakey to help develop one of her goals to bring many of the rare fossil specimens in Kenya to the world by the web. The website http://www.Africanfossils.org by Louise Leakey has been updated with several new features since its launch at Autodesk University 2011…
