A Digital Collection of Hominoid Endocasts

Abstract

The major focus of this book is to provide the researcher or student with a general overview of the recent advances and updated knowledge regarding human paleoneurological research. In this context, the objective of this chapter is to provide the reader with a series of plates showing endocranial casts of several well-preserved and relevant fossil specimens representing different extinct hominid species, as well as some examples from living modern humans and great apes. Each plate depicts the external aspect of the cranium and its spatial relationship with the endocranial cavity in lateral norm, as well as a general view of each endocast viewed from all six norms. Additionally, some basic taxonomic notes collected from the literature are also provided (Groves 2001; Holloway et al. 2004; Isler et al. 2008; Wood and Lonergan 2008). With this material in hand, the reader may look at the evolutionary changes discussed in the present book regarding the evolution of the human endocranium and brain. It is worth noting that this chapter is not intended to give a detailed description of any particular specimen. For that purpose, we recommend to consult Holloway et al. (2004) extensive monograph on hominid endocasts. All specimens depicted here were digitally reconstructed from computed tomographic (CT) sections following the principles of digital anatomy (Zollikofer and Ponce de León 2005; Weber and Bookstein 2011). Missing parts of fossil crania where estimated using sliding semi-landmarks and thin-plate spline techniques as proposed elsewhere (Gunz et al. 2005, 2009). The only exception to this procedure is the Asian Homo erectus specimen Zhoukoudian XII, which consisted of surface scans of a reproduction of the original endocast made by Weindereich (1943) as well as a cast of the cranial reconstruction made by Tattersall and Sawyer (1996).