The author categorizes the recent literature under the topics of skull anthropology, efficacy of cranio-facial reconstruction techniques, soft tissue depth data, facial soft tissue features, and computer-aided 3D cranio-facial reconstruction. Since an accurate anthropological evaluation of the skull to determine sex, age, and race is required before attempting any facial reconstruction, the paper first reviews contemporary research in this area. Next, an assessment of the efficacy of cranio-facial reconstruction techniques to date describes research that has shown the effectiveness of state-of-the-art cranio-facial reconstruction techniques in producing close similarities to identified individuals. The author notes, however, that since most facial reconstruction techniques use sets of average tissue depths, which either act as guides or as the main basis, more research on facial soft tissue depths is required, especially for children. Since the beginning of the 21st century, progress in computer science and improvement in medical imaging technologies have been applied to study new facial-feature prediction guidelines and systematically evaluate traditional guidelines objectively with empirical methods. The paper describes the progress that has been made by various scientists in developing 3D reconstruction methods. The challenge of the coming years will be to increase the degree of accuracy of the facial reconstruction, especially by re-examining and increasing knowledge of the facial details that can be extrapolated from the skull. 78 references