Publication Date:
1998-06-20
Description:
Two- and three-dimensional computer imaging shows that endocranial capacity in an approximately 2.8- to 2.6-million-year-old early hominid cranium (Stw 505) from Sterkfontein, South Africa, tentatively assigned to Australopithecus africanus, is approximately 515 cubic centimeters. Although this is the largest endocranial capacity recorded for this species, it is still markedly less than anecdotal reports of endocranial capacity exceeding 600 cubic centimeters. No australopithecine has an endocranial capacity approaching, let alone exceeding, 600 cubic centimeters. Some currently accepted estimates of early hominid endocranial capacity may be inflated, suggesting that the tempo and mode of early hominid brain evolution may need reevaluation.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Conroy, G C -- Weber, G W -- Seidler, H -- Tobias, P V -- Kane, A -- Brunsden, B -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1998 Jun 12;280(5370):1730-1.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology and Department of Anthropology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. conroyg@thalamus.wustl.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9624045" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Biological Evolution
;
Brain/*anatomy & histology
;
Computer Simulation
;
*Fossils
;
History, Ancient
;
Hominidae/*anatomy & histology
;
Humans
;
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
;
*Models, Anatomic
;
Skull/*anatomy & histology
;
South Africa
;
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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