We would like to hear from you! Whether you are a student in a classroom or a teacher, or an enthusiast printing at home. Please feel free to upload images of your prints or models and leave us feedback, we appreciate hearing from you.
Share your stories and leave feedback
We would like to hear from you! Whether you are a student in a classroom or a teacher, or an enthusiast printing at home. Please feel free to upload images of your prints or models and leave us feedback, we appreciate hearing from you.
Congratulations to all those who made this website happen!
NB: Correct the word "live" to "like" in the "We would live to hear" phrase at the top of this page. The misspell is probably because of the excitement of having the website live :-)
Hello,
I am teaching a course called Big Ideas in Science, at High Point Regional High School. We are located in New Jersey USA. My students have used your data to print several skulls. We have had some difficulties getting proper scale.
Thank You for all Your work, we will be printing more.
Hello,thank you for sharing your excellent work. I have been using your website and data in a course called Big Ideas in Science. I have attached images of work my students have done with your data. We have been very pleased with the results.
Andrew Marancik
Highpoint Regional High School
Sussex New Jersey, USA
Thank you very much for making these files public. It is amazing to be able to handle replicas of these fossils and get a size for the actual size and shape of the beings they came from. I have taught biology for several years now and have always thought that it would be great to have a more hands-on way for students to interact with fossils - especially to compare them up close and see the small changes in different areas of the skull. I look forward to getting these made up and introducing them to my class.
I was wondering (and please forgive me if this is already on the site) if you might also have files to make non-human primate skulls (modern) to use for comparison. Alternatively, if you can point me to a location for these files, that's just as good.
Thanks again for bringing this resource to those of us who aren't in a location where we can look at the originals - or even replica casts. This is terrific!
Hello, downloaded several models and they all show up as far too big to be accurate. We are planning to use them for teaching and public outreach. I'm using the makerbot printer. What are the appropriate dimensions for KMNER 1802, KMNER 992b, and KNMWT 15000 Mandible? The models when imported into the printer software are almost twice natural size.
Thanks, kcn
Hello Kelvin,
Currently we are using the dimensions that we provided for the models,until when we get access to the original fossils. I would suggest you try scaling down before then.
Thank you for your feedback.
Regards,
Ngechu Robert.
Hi there,
I just wanted to let you know this is such an amazing website! LOVE IT
Thank you, as this will be a wonderful teaching aid for all ages of students!
COngrats
Hi Alexander,
Thank you so much for your support.I hope you have visited our social media platforms on twitter(@AfricanFossils),facebook page (africanfossils.org) as well as Instagram (africanfossils). Looking forward to engaging more with you.
Regards,
Ngechu
This is a fantastic site. Thank you so much.
Ive downloaded loads of your 3d files and will be printing the very soon on the schools soon to be aquired makerbot replicator fourth generation machine.
Only problem: never done it before!
Has anyone out there done this and can give a 3d printer virgin a few pointers?
Thanks.
Hi,
Its amazing that you already downloaded the 3D files. I recommend you log into http://www.3ders.org, its an amazing site. Also on social media there are quite a number of pages with 3D printing forums.
Well success in the 3D printing and always feel free to share pics of your models.
Regards,
Ngechu.
Dear Ngechu:
Thank you very much for making these files available. I have been trying to put together a small family tree highlighting the changes observed over time with major groiups of homnids. I would very much like to include a model of Australopithicus afarensis, but have not been able to find any data files for this organism. Do you know whether that is available anywhere?
Thanks again - the effort that went into creating this site is much appreciated. I am very much looking forward to the timeline.
Sincerely,
Jack
I uploaded the stl. file to 3DHubs (https://www.3dhubs.com/3dprint). After processing, it listed a number of places in London that conduct 3D printing in various materials and to various qualities.
KNM-ER 3230 cost me around £25 sterling to print and it looks spectacular.
I'm so excited to print these models and use them in my biology class! Would it be possible to add the gorilla and chimp files for a complete hominid comparison?
-Trying not to be too greedy- Agam
Thanks so much for sharing these models with the world, they are really excellent. I am a researcher at a uni and they make great outreach materials. I've printed some of the animal models with the seperate craniums and mandibles such as the hyena, baboon, and civet.
I have found that the best way to print the craniums is to orient the model vertically, with the anterior (back) part on the plate. This means that the last part to be printed is anterior of the skull (the front teeth). This seems to be the best compromise between getting a good finish on the teeth, the orbits, and the zygomatic arches. The best way to print the jaw is with the ventral part on the plate so that the teeth stick up.
The models are so well scanned that when the mandible and cranium are joined together, they articulate perfectly and the teeth mesh very well. It is possible to use an elastic band or two to keep these parts together and to enable them to move.
I have a four to ask... is it possible for you to split the Rhino skull up into the cranium and mandible please? It does not print well as it is.
Thanks, Luke
Hey Luke,
That baboon print-out looks awesome congratulations for that. Thank you for your support, as AfricanFossils we purpose to provide high quality scans and provide the relevant 3D print files in good quality too. As for the Rhino skull, we will provide you with information,hopefully we will get to split it for you. Keep on printing stuff and keep up with us on social media as we upload new scans each #FossilFriday.
Keep up with the spirit Luke,Kudos.
Articulated baboon
The download for the tool GaJg1 - Lomekwi 3 didn't work (it had a red 'no' symbol next to it). Others I tried did download correctly.
Love the site though, thanks heaps!!
Hi Craig,
Thank you for the love, we appreciate your positive feedback. For the moment,you cannot download the Lomekwi tools yet but once we have the go ahead to share the 3D printing files we will update you on this forums as well as on our social media platforms. Again thanks for the love and keep it here for more interesting models.