Warts and All, Researchers reconstruct the face of Cro-magnun man
PARIS – Cro-Magnon man had a face covered in lumps including a large one on his forehead — likely benign tumors caused by a genetic disease, according to a team of French researchers in new findings published Friday.
The skeleton of Cro-Magnon 1, a male Homo sapiens dating back 28,000 years, was discovered in 1868 in the Eyzies cave in France’s southwestern Dordogne region.
To mark 150 years since the discovery of the bones, a team of researchers, including anthropologist Philippe Charlier, re-examined the remains.
At the end of their investigation, “we proposed a new diagnosis: he had suffered from a type of neurofibromatosis,” Charlier said.
Neurofibromatosis is a genetic disease which can cause benign tumors to develop in the nervous system, and also spots or areas of pigmentation on the skin.
The team’s findings will be published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet.
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