Early hominid brain evolution: a new look at old endocasts.

@article{Falk2000EarlyHB,
  title={Early hominid brain evolution: a new look at old endocasts.},
  author={Dean Falk and John C. Redmond and J Guyer and Cj Conroy and Wolfgang Recheis and Gerhard W. Weber and Horst Seidler},
  journal={Journal of human evolution},
  year={2000},
  volume={38 5},
  pages={
          695-717
        }
}
Key MethodEarly hominid brain morphology is reassessed from endocasts of Australopithecus africanus and three species of Paranthropus, and new endocast reconstructions and cranial capacities are reported for four key specimens from the Paranthropus clade. The brain morphology of Australopithecus africanus appears more human like than that of Paranthropus in terms of overall frontal and temporal lobe shape. These new data do not support the proposal that increased encephalization is a shared feature…
View on PubMed
deanfalk.com
147 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
7
Background Citations
58
Methods Citations
5
Results Citations
9

Figures and Tables from this paper

147 Citations

4.06 – Differences in Brain Organization Between Neanderthals and Modern Humans

The endocranial shape of Australopithecus africanus: surface analysis of the endocasts of Sts 5 and Sts 60

The primary aim in this study is to explore the organization of the Australopithecus afAfricanus endocasts, and highlight the nature and extent of the differences distinguishing A. africanus from the extant hominids at both local and global scales.

Interpreting sulci on hominin endocasts: old hypotheses and new findings

  • D. Falk
  • Biology, Psychology
    Front. Hum. Neurosci.
  • 2014
The comparative and direct evidence for all three regions suggests that hominin brain reorganization was underway by at least the time of Australopithecus africanus, despite the ape-sized brains of these hominins, and that it entailed expansion of both rostral and caudal association cortices.

The hominin fossil record and the emergence of the modern human central nervous system

Hominin paleoneurology: where are we now?

  • D. Falk
  • Psychology, Biology
    Progress in brain research
  • 2012

Pandora's growing box: Inferring the evolution and development of hominin brains from endocasts

New fossil finds permit a denser sampling of hominin endocranial morphologies along ontogenetic and evolutionary time lines and new brain imaging methods provide the basis for quantifying endocast‐brain relationships and tracking endocransial and brain growth and development noninvasively.

Hominins and the emergence of the modern human brain.

Metopic suture of Taung (Australopithecus africanus) and its implications for hominin brain evolution

The data indicate that hominin brain evolution occurred within a complex network of fetopelvic constraints, which required modification of frontal neurocranial ossification patterns.

The Brain of LB1, Homo floresiensis

Morphometric, allometric, and shape data indicate that LB1 is not a microcephalic or pygmy and has derived frontal and temporal lobes and a lunate sulcus in a derived position which are consistent with capabilities for higher cognitive processing.

No brain expansion in Australopithecus boisei.

  • J. Hawks
  • Environmental Science
    American journal of physical anthropology
  • 2011
This study reevaluates the evidence, using randomization methods and a related test using an explicit model of variability, to see if the A. boisei endocranial volume sample produces significant evidence for a trend in that species, whether or not the early KNM-WT 17000 specimen is included.
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 53 REFERENCES

Cerebral Cortices of East African Early Hominids

  • D. Falk
  • Geography, Environmental Science
    Science
  • 1983
New analysis of paleoanatomical evidence indicates that at least two taxa of early hominids coexisted in East Africa.

Hominid Brain Evolution: Looks Can Be Deceiving

The measured value of cranial capacity of a new specimen of Australopithecus africanus is significantly less than expected, and Falk suggests this will cause a major reevaluation of previous measurements of hominid skulls and a profound alteration in the understanding of brain evolution.

New australopithecine endocast, SK 1585, from Swartkrans, South Africa

The new SK 1585 endocast, found by Dr. Brain at Swartkrans, 1966, is that of a robust australopithecine, matching the endocast of the Olduvai Hominid 5 in volume, and being almost identical to it in…

Human paleontological evidence relevant to language behavior.

Additional evidence of sexual dimorphism in the modern human corpus callosum, in which the posterior splenial portion is larger in females, taken in conjunction with known clinical and psychological evidence relating to cognitive task specialization, suggests that thisDimorphism represents a biological heritage from past selection pressures for a dichotomous but complemental social behavioral set of adaptations to favor a division of sexual labors.

Endocranial capacity in an early hominid cranium from Sterkfontein, South Africa.

Two- and three-dimensional computer imaging shows that endocranial capacity in an approximately 2.8- to 2.6-million-year-old early hominid cranium from Sterkfontein, South Africa, tentatively assigned to Australopithecus africanus, is approximately 515 cubic centimeters, which is markedly less than anecdotal reports of endocrinial capacity exceeding 600 cubic centimeters.

New Australopithecus boisei specimens from east and west Lake Turkana, Kenya.

New specimens of Plio-Pleistocene Australopithecus boisei are described from east and west Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya and enable us to decipher, for the first time, some of the in situ evolution of this species within the Turkana Basin.

Endocranial features of Australopithecus africanus revealed by 2- and 3-D computed tomography.

Results show that endocranial capacity in this specimen is less than originally proposed and also support the view that gracile and robust australopithecines evolved different cranial venous outflow patterns in response to upright postures.

New Endocranial Values for the East African Early Hominids

THIS is a preliminary report on research carried out during 1971 and 1972 on the endocranial values of some East African hominids from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, and East Lake Rudolf, Kenya. The…

Cranial capacity of a female robust australopithecine (KNM-ER 407) from Kenya

Body proportions of Australopithecus afarensis and A. africanus and the origin of the genus Homo.

New discoveries of A. africanus fossils from Member 4 Sterkfontein reveal a body form quite unlike earlier Australopithecus species, and postcranial material reveals an apparently primitive morphology of relatively large forelimb and small hindlimb joints resembling more the pongid than the human pattern.
...