Anthropology at JMU is split up into four sub-sections: cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics. We have created a class for JMU that falls under biological anthropology. Currently, full and complete artifacts of our ancestors do not exist. Only partial remains have been found and leave us to theorize about the complete skeletal, muscular, and physical makeup of them. Our new 3D printing class will allow students to apply what they learn through biological anthropology and make logical assumptions as to what the unknown parts of these beings looked like. They will do this by using measurements to scale and printing out the various parts of the body.
3-D printing will be useful in 3 ways for this class. The first will be so students can theorize about the undiscovered, missing skeletal structures of ancestors of humans. From this perspective, students will be able to learn more about the realistic size and shape of certain ancestral bones. Additionally, students will be able to apply their knowledge of evolution to their theories. The differentiation of bones and various physical features currently allow is to classify fossils as belonging to a certain ancestor, homo habilis vs. homo erectus, for example. With this information, students can design what they believe missing bones should look like, functionally aligning with the discovered elements of each species. From this students will be able to make connections between bones and species, this furthering their knowledge of biological anthropology.
Continuing, many current species developed from a common ancestor. At some point in history a mutation developed causing multiple descendants of the ancestor, each with a uniqre characteristin allowing for survival and natural selection. Students can design and print indididual physical developments describing these elements and the look of a common ancestor various species come from.
Our modern day theories of the physical appearances and non-skeletal structure of species from millions of years ago develop from their bones and bone structure. This is because bones are the only bodily feature preserved over millions of years. 3D printing would be able to be utilitzed in this class be allowing students to design the appearance and vascular structure, for example, of what these species looked like and how their bodies operated.
The way this class is currently designed is around memorizing facts instead of comprehending the material and understanding how everything interacts with one another. 3D printing coupled with biological anthropology seeks to give students a better understanding of the concepts discussed in the class.
Upon doing research on this topic, we didn’t find much. This is a new topic that has not been implemented before. We believe that this is a different perspective to evolution that could create new discoveries about the human anatomy and how we have evolved over the years. This class will also be useful to other areas of medicine, like 3D printing human bones that are able to fit into the body and function as if it were the natural bone. By exploring the evolution of humans we will be able to further understand the structure of the bones and be able to implement it in many ways.
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