Homo Naledi Jaw from Rising Star Cave

thingiverse

You must have been hiding under a rock for the last few weeks if you haven't heard about the groundbreaking discoveries in South Africa's Rising Star cave. Over 1500 specimens representing parts of at least 15 skeletons have been uncovered, revealing a brand new species, Homo naledi. Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand's Evolutionary Studies Institute scanned a portion of the artifacts with a Next Engine desktop scanner and shared many of their models on http://morphosource.org/. While most models will interest only those in the field, a few impressive crowd-pleasers are also available. I chose U.W. 101-1261, a mandible or lower jaw, and U.W. 101-127, a partial maxilla or upper jaw, which they go with. The models required some clean up to make them printable. I recommend printing them at about a 45-degree angle (check the picture) on full support and a raft if needed. This orientation minimizes top surface topo artifacts and support scarring. We discussed this technique and more on the 3D Printing Today podcast, available on iTunes or Stitcher radio, learn more at http://www.threedprintingtoday.com/. I printed copies for my kids' schools, and you can too. Print Settings: Rafts: Yes Supports: Yes Resolution: 0.1mm Infill: 30% Notes: Print at 45-degree angle to the build plate on full support to avoid layer line artifacts and support scarring. Post-Printing The jaw looks impressive when printed on support, but the original article had some minor spelling errors, the word "specimens" was used incorrectly, I corrected this for better grammar, however to keep up with my initial requirements of not altering content beyond its necessary means (avoid adding or deleting characters that might impact grammar) I have rewritten only those sentences containing the mentioned correction and a few words to adjust the whole passage in a coherent way without making big modifications.