The human family album just gained a new portrait, after scientists discovered a skull of our earliest ancestor and reconstructed its face.

Australopithecus anamensis (meaning southern ape of the lake) is the oldest known species of the human evolutionary tree after it branched away from more ape-like creatures around 4.2 million years ago.

But until recently paleoanthropologists had only found fragments of jaw, limb bones and teeth, making it difficult to know what it looked like.

In February 2016, a global excavation team discovered the 'remarkably complete' fossil skull in the sediment of an ancient lake in the Afar region of Ethiopia, around 35 miles from Addis Ababa.

Now, after years of careful comparison with other fossils, scientists have confirmed that it belonged to Australopithecus anamensis, and have recreated the face of the species for the first time.