Rather than simply displaying the three faces side by side and inviting visual comparison, the team placed three-dimensional landmarks on each reconstructed face at standardized anatomical positions and then applied the mathematical tools of geometric morphometrics to analyze how the shapes differed.

The specific analysis involved placing homologous landmarks — landmarks at the same identifiable anatomical points — on each of the three reconstructed facial surfaces.

The coordinates of those landmarks were recorded in three dimensions.

The landmark configurations were then aligned using a generalized Procrustes analysis, which removes differences due to position, orientation, and scale, leaving only shape differences.

The resulting shape data were then analyzed using principal component analysis and other multivariate statistical tools.

This approach answers specific quantitative questions.