Endocranial ontogeny and evolution in early Homo sapiens: The evidence from Herto, Ethiopia.

ABSTRACT: Fossils and artifacts from Herto, Ethiopia, include the most complete child and adult crania of early Homo sapiens. The endocranial cavities of the Herto individuals show that by 160,000 y ago, brain size, inferred from endocranial size, was similar to that seen in modern human populations. However, endocranial shape differed from ours. This gave rise to the hypothesis that the brain itself evolved substantially during the past ∼200,000 y, possibly in tandem with the transition from Middle to Upper Paleolithic techno-cultures. However, it remains unclear whether evolutionary changes in endocranial shape mostly reflect changes in brain morphology rather than changes related to interaction with maxillofacial morphology. To discriminate between these effects, we make use of the ontogen

SUBMITTER: Zollikofer CPE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9371682 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature