You would have to have been living in a cave for the last couple of weeks to have not heard of the amazing discoveries made in South Africa's Rising Star cave. More than 1500 specimens representing parts of at least 15 skeletons have been excavated so far. The skeletons are thought to be the first representatives of a new species, Homo naledi. Scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand's Evolutionary Studies Institute scanned a portion of the artifacts with a Next Engine desktop scanner and made many of their models available at http://morphosource.org/. Many of the models would only be of interest to someone in that field, but there are a couple of more spectacular crowd pleasing specimens as well. I chose U.W. 101-1261, a mandible or lower jaw and U.W. 101-127, a partial maxilla, or upper jaw, which goes with it.

The models needed a little clean up to make them printable. I recommend printing them at about a 45 degree angle (see picture) on full support and a raft, if necessary. This orientation minimizes top surface topo artifacts and support scarring. We talked about this technique and a whole lot 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 kid's schools, and so can you.