Brazil recovers ancient human fossil fragments from burnt Rio museum

Brazilian officials said Friday they have recovered pieces of a 12,000-year-old fossil of a neolithic woman that was among the prized artifacts in Rio de Janeiro’s burnt down National Museum. “We found almost all of the skull and 80 percent of its fragments have been identified,” museum director Alexander Kellner said, adding that fragments of a femur were also uncovered from the ashes. The fossil, nicknamed “Luzia,” was discovered in 1970 in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais by a French-led expedition. A Manchester University team later did a digital face reconstruction based on the skull, which was used to model a sculpture of the ancient woman. That sculpture went up in flames on September 2 along with most of the museum’s 20 million artifacts. But the original skull fragments, kept in a metal urn in a closet, were found a few days ago.