Frontal bone fragment of<Emphasis Type="Italic">Homo erectus</Emphasis> from Sangiran,Java

In 1994 a hominid frontal bone fragment was found in the river floor of the Brangkal River, the Sangiran area, Central Java. The original stratigraphic level is not known at present stage of the research. But it is possible that the bone was derived from the Grenzbank zone of the Bapang Formation (Lower/Middle Pleistocene). Morphological features of the bone, such as a thick and continuous supraorbital torus, a wide and flat supratoral plane, and a flat and strongly inclined frontal squame suggest that the bone is assigned to JavaneseHomo erectus, especially to the Sangiran and Trinil group of it.     

Geometric variation of the frontal squama in the genus homo: Frontal bulging and the origin of modern human morphology

The majority of studies of frontal bone morphology in paleoanthropology have analyzed the frontal squama and the browridge as a single unit, mixing information from different functional elements. Taking into account that the bulging of the frontal bone is often described as a species‐specific trait of Homo sapiens, in this article we analyze variation in the midsagittal profile of the genus Homo, focusing on the frontal squama alone, using landmark‐based superimpositions and principal components analysis. Our results demonstrate that anatomically modern humans are definitely separated from extinct human taxa on the basis of frontal bulging. However, there is minor overlap among these groups, indicating that it is necessary to exercise caution when using this trait alone to make taxonomic inferences on individual specimens. Early modern humans do not show differences with recent modern humans, and “transitional” individuals such as Jebel Irhoud 1, Maba, and Florisbad, show modern‐like frontal squama morphology. The bulging of the frontal squama in modern humans may represent a structural consequence of more general cranial changes, or it could be a response to changes in the morphology of the underlying prefrontal brain elements. A subtle difference between Neandertals and the Afro‐European Middle Pleistocene Homo sample is associated with flattening at bregma in the former group, a result that merits further investigation. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc     

Landmark-based shape analysis of the archaic Homo calvarium from Ceprano (Italy)

The Ceprano calvarium represents one of the most important sources of information about both the dynamics of the earliest hominid dispersal toward Europe and the evolution of the genus Homo in the early-to-middle Pleistocene. In this paper, the midsagittal vault profile and the 3D frontal bone morphology of Ceprano are investigated comparatively, using landmark coordinates and Procrustes superimposition. In fact, despite the fact that the skull appears partially distorted by diagenetic pressures (thus precluding a comprehensive landmark-based analysis), some aspects of the overall morphology are suitable for consideration in terms of geometric morphometrics. The midsagittal profile shows an archaic shape, comparable with the H. ergaster/erectus range of variation because of the fronto-parietal flattening, the development of the supraorbital and nuchal structures, and the occurrence of a slightly larger occipital bone. By contrast, the frontal bone displays a derived 3D shape that, mostly because of the widening of the frontal squama, appears comparable with the Afro-European variation of the Middle Pleistocene (i.e., H. heidelbergensis/rhodesiensis). Taking into account the unique morphological pattern displayed by Ceprano, its role as a link between early Homo and the Middle Pleistocene populations of Europe and Africa is not falsified. Thus, when aspects of the Ceprano's morphology are described within the analytical framework provided by geometric morphometrics, the relationships between Ceprano and the subsequent Afro-European fossil record are emphasized, suggesting the occurrence of an ancestral stock of H. heidelbergensis/rhodesiensis that is properly represented by the Italian specimen.     

Morphological affinities of the Sal'a 1 frontal bone

The human frontal bone from Sal'a, Slovak Republic, has previously entered into discussions of the morphological patterns of Central European Neandertals and the origins of early modern humans in that region. A morphological reassessment of its supraorbital region and a morphometric analysis of its overall proportions indicate that it falls well within expected ranges of variation of Late Pleistocene Neandertals and is separate from European earlier Upper Paleolithic early modern human crania. It is similar to the Qafzeh-Skhul sample in some metrical and supraorbital robusticity measures, but it contrasts with them in mid-sagittal curvature and supraorbital torus morphology. In the context of its probable oxygen isotope stage 5 age based on inferred biostratigraphic associations, it should not be employed directly for arguments relating to the emergence of modern humans in Central Europe.     

Morphological affinities of the al’a 1 frontal bone

The human frontal bone from al’a, Slovak Republic, has previously entered into discussions of the morphological patterns of Central European Neandertals and the origins of early modern humans in that region. A morphological reassessment of its supraorbital region and a morphometric analysis of its overall proportions indicate that it falls well within expected ranges of variation of Late Pleistocene Neandertals and is separate from European earlier Upper Paleolithic early modern human crania. It is similar to the Qafzeh-Skhul sample in some metrical and supraorbital robusticity measures, but it contrasts with them in mid-sagittal curvature and supraorbital torus morphology. In the context of its probable oxygen isotope stage 5 age based on inferred biostratigraphic associations, it should not be employed directly for arguments relating to the emergence of modern humans in Central Europe.     

南京1号直立人头骨与肯尼亚KNM-ER 3733人类头骨化石的形态比较

KNM-ER 3733人类头骨化石的年代为距今1.78百万年,1975年发现于肯尼亚。Walker和Leakey注意到这具头骨与周口店直立人的在脑颅形态上很相近,但二者在年代上相差大约1百万年,故认为直立人形态在这1百万年期间是稳定的。长期来此观点缺乏更多的人类化石证据来支持。1993年在中国发现了南京1号人类头骨化石。该头骨与KNM-ER 3733头骨一样兼具脑颅和面颅,且都属于成年女性个体,但南京1号人类头骨化石的年代比KNM-ER 3733人类头骨化石的要晚大约1百万年。因此,南京1号人类头骨是目前所知的可用来验证直立人头骨形态是否在1百万年期间保持稳定的唯一合适的人类头骨化石材料。形态比较表明,这两个人类头骨化石的脑颅虽然在眶上圆枕上沟的发育程度、眶后收缩的程度、额骨横向隆起的程度、角圆枕和乳后突的发育与否、顶骨形状以及骨壁厚度的表现上有所差异,但有更多的形态性状显示出相近。这些相近表现在脑颅的长、宽、高值上;颅容量上;脑颅的低矮性上;脑颅最大宽之位置上;额骨、顶骨、枕骨之矢弧值的比例上;眶上圆枕的纤细上;顶骨的大小和矢向扁平性上;颞线位置和颞鳞顶缘的形状上;枕鳞的低宽形状上;上枕鳞与下枕鳞之间的转折形状和比例上;枕骨圆枕和枕骨圆枕上沟的发育程度上等。这两具头骨的面颅虽然有同属突颌型的面角、皆发育有鼻骨间嵴、两鼻骨组成的上部宽度与下部宽度皆差别很大,但有更多的形态性状显示出差别。这些差别表现在面型上、颜面上部扁平度上、眶形和眶型上、上颌额突外侧面的朝向上、鼻骨横向隆起程度上、鼻梁外突程度上、鼻型上、颧骨下缘外展程度上、颊高上、颧上颌下缘的形状上、上颌颧突基部的位置上以及颧结节的位置上等。因此,南京1号头骨与KNM-ER 3733头骨之间在脑颅上显示出较多的相近性状,在面颅上则显示出较多的相异性状。脑颅方面的相近性状大多具有分类上的鉴别价值。这两个头骨脑颅形态的相近支持把KNM-ER 3733头骨鉴定为"直立人"的观点;也提示了南京1号头骨的脑颅似乎保持着1百多万年前的"祖先"形态。如果直立人的某些成员在至少1百万年期间保持着形态稳定的话,则这种形态上的稳定主要是表现在脑颅形态上。这两具头骨的面颅形态上较大差异的意义,目前尚不清楚。     

Out of the North Sea: the Zeeland Ridges Neandertal

In 2001, a portion of human frontal bone was discovered in sediments extracted from the bottom of the North Sea, 15 km off the coast of the Netherlands. The extraction zone is located in the so-called Zeeland Ridges area located at 51°40′ northern latitude and 3°20′ eastern longitude. The specimen was dredged up from sediments containing Late Pleistocene faunal remains and Middle Palaeolithic artefacts, including well-finished small handaxes and Levallois flakes. The details of the supraorbital morphology, as well as the quantitative assessment of the shape of the external surface of the squama using traditional and 3D geometric morphometrics, unambiguously assign the Zeeland Ridges frontal bone to Homo neanderthalensis. Carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis indicate that the Zeeland Ridges hominin, like other Neandertals, was highly carnivorous and does not show evidence for the consumption of aquatic foods. A lesion on the outer table and diploic layer of the bone in the area of the supratoral sulcus can be interpreted as the result of an intradiploic epidermoid cyst, a type of neoplasm diagnosed for the first time in Neandertal remains. So far, the Zeeland Ridges Neandertal is the first Pleistocene fossil hominin found under seawater and the first recorded in the Netherlands.     

安徽和县猿人化石及有关问题的初步研究

安徽省和县猿人化石产地龙潭洞自1974至1980,先后经和县文化局、省水文地质工程地质队、省文物局和中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所等单位的调查和发掘,获得了一个猿人头盖骨,部分下颌骨和零星牙齿。这些材料大约代表3个个体,包括青年、壮年和老年。在同一层位发现的脊椎动物化石经初步鉴定,大约50种。另外,在遗址中还发现一些骨、角制品和烧过的骨、牙碎片。化石层的地质时代属更新世中期,昔日的生态环境为森林草原,气候趋于凉爽。     

Discovery of an archaic Homo sapiens skullcap in Northeast Mongolia

This preliminary study of a human skullcap discovered at Salkhit, Northeast Mongolia, in 2006, shows a mosaic of traits. Plesiomorphies can be seen on the frontal bone: developed brow ridges and a keeled squama. Apomorphies can be observed: high and back-located parietal eminences and absence of a sagittal keel. The skullcap seems to share also some features with Neanderthals that can be observed on the lower part of the frontal bone and in the nasal and orbital region such as a supratoral sulcus, a prominent glabella, prominent rounded lateral supraorbital margins, and a well-defined inward nasion. The comparison of the dimensions of the skullcap with those of skullcaps of a reference sample by multidimensional scaling analysis shows similarities with Neanderthals, Chinese Homo erectus, and West/Far East archaic Homo sapiens. However, the too fragmentary condition of the fossil does not allow any further comparison. Nevertheless, this discovery tackles the modern human origins debate in a region of the world where no human fossil had been discovered before.     

1981年发现的安徽和县猿人化石

本文记述1981年在安徽和县发现的人的五枚牙齿化石、额骨眶上部残片及顶骨残片一块。研究表明,大多数形态特征与北京猿人非常相似,但也有较北京猿人进步的特征。和县猿人无疑地属直立人(Homo erectus),和县猿人的门齿与元谋猿人的门齿,在形态特征上存在较大的差别。     

Homologies of cephalic lateral line canals in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pseudorhombus pentophthalmus</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Engyprosopon grandisquama </Emphasis>(Pleuronectiformes): innervation and upper eye floor formation

Cephalic lateral line canals in two pleuronectiforms, Pseudorhombus pentophthalmus (Paralichthyidae) and Engyprosopon grandisquama (Bothidae), were studied and their homologies between the ocular and blind sides assessed on the basis of position and innervation patterns. A blind side canal, comprising small ossicles in a line lateral to the upper eye floor, was confirmed as the infraorbital line because the canal was not innervated by a ramus associated with the upper nasal (i.e., the superficial ophthalmic ramus innervating the supraorbital line). Consequently, the ramus innervating the canal was identified as the buccal ramus (associated with the infraorbital line). The blind side frontal forming the posterior half of the upper eye floor was identified as that part bearing the anteriormost otic canal in the ocular side, hypertrophy of the blind side component being evident. The supraorbital line of the blind side was represented by the upper nasal only in E. grandisquama.     

Radical forehead remodeling for craniostenosis

A normal forehead has two parts, shaped differently: (1) the lower part (corresponding to the supraorbital rim and glabellar area) set at a steep angle to the nose; (2) the upper part, sloping gently backward. To reproduce this normal anatomy in cases of cranostenosis affecting the frontal area, we found it essential to mobilize and reshape a supraorbital bar of bone and to transfer a suitable piece of the cranial vault in one piece to make a new upper forehead. By this method we have treated 18 patients with oxycephaly since 1973, with good results. We have also operated on babies with craniostenosis to try to solve simultaneously the functional and the cosmetic problems. In faciocraniostenosis, there are dominant malformations at the base of the skull, but an isolated frontal advancement of two cm has produced gratifying early results.     

Occipital bunning among later pleistocene hominids

Occipital bunning is a posterior projection of the occipital squama, which occurs in varying frequencies in samples of archaic Homo sapiens, Upper Pleistocene anatomically modern humans, and recent humans. It can be best interpreted as a product of the timing of posterior cerebral growth relative to the growth of the cranial vault bones. It is not a feature that was unique to the Neandertals.     

Frontal sinus ontogeny and covariation with bone structures in a modern human population

In humans, the frontal sinus (FS) is located in the medial part of the supraorbital region, sometimes expanded throughout the frontal squama. It exhibits high morphological variability, but its general form appears to be constrained by surrounding structures. The goal of this study is to analyze FS growth and test for covariation between FS volume and the glabellar region, upper nasal region, bone thickness and endocranial size in a human sample from Argentina. The sample comprises 149 reconstructions derived from computed tomography images of individuals aged 0–31 years. Volume of the FS and measurements of the surrounding structures were recorded. The FS growth trajectory was assessed by parametric and nonparametric methods, and covariation was determined using correlations and partial correlations. The FS volume could be measured at an age of about 6 years and older; adults had no aplasia but hyperplasia was found in some cases. Since the most conspicuous characteristic found was variation among individuals, the nonparametric smoothing spline produced very poor fitting. The modified logistic function was the only parametric method providing significant parameters. Sexes differed in the age at which FS growth began and ended, with FS developing earlier but at a slower rate in females than in males. The FS volume did not correlate with either upper nasal width or endocranial volume, but it correlated with bone thickness measurements (mainly from the glabellar region), even when age was held constant. Expansion of the FS at the frontal poles also correlated with frontal bone thickness. Despite the difficulty in modeling and predicting the trajectory and morphology of FS, our results suggest that it is affected by its surrounding bony environment.     

Craniofacial morphology of Homo floresiensis: description, taxonomic affinities, and evolutionary implication

This paper describes in detail the external morphology of LB1/1, the nearly complete and only known cranium of Homo floresiensis. Comparisons were made with a large sample of early groups of the genus Homo to assess primitive, derived, and unique craniofacial traits of LB1 and discuss its evolution. Principal cranial shape differences between H. floresiensis and Homo sapiens are also explored metrically. The LB1 specimen exhibits a marked reductive trend in its facial skeleton, which is comparable to the H. sapiens condition and is probably associated with reduced masticatory stresses. However, LB1 is craniometrically different from H. sapiens showing an extremely small overall cranial size, and the combination of a primitive low and anteriorly narrow vault shape, a relatively prognathic face, a rounded oval foramen that is greatly separated anteriorly from the carotid canal/jugular foramen, and a unique, tall orbital shape. Whereas the neurocranium of LB1 is as small as that of some Homo habilis specimens, it exhibits laterally expanded parietals, a weak suprameatal crest, a moderately flexed occipital, a marked facial reduction, and many other derived features that characterize post-habilis Homo. Other craniofacial characteristics of LB1 include, for example, a relatively narrow frontal squama with flattened right and left sides, a marked frontal keel, posteriorly divergent temporal lines, a posteriorly flexed anteromedial corner of the mandibular fossa, a bulbous lateral end of the supraorbital torus, and a forward protruding maxillary body with a distinct infraorbital sulcus. LB1 is most similar to early Javanese Homo erectus from Sangiran and Trinil in these and other aspects. We conclude that the craniofacial morphology of LB1 is consistent with the hypothesis that H. floresiensis evolved from early Javanese H. erectus with dramatic island dwarfism. However, further field discoveries of early hominin skeletal remains from Flores and detailed analyses of the finds are needed to understand the evolutionary history of this endemic hominin species.     

Masticatory loading and bone adaptation in the supraorbital torus of developing macaques

Research on the evolution and adaptive significance of primate craniofacial morphologies has focused on adult, fully developed individuals. Here, we investigate the possible relationship between the local stress environment arising from masticatory loadings and the emergence of the supraorbital torus in the developing face of the crab‐eating macaque Macaca fascicularis. By using finite element analysis (FEA), we are able to evaluate the hypothesis that strain energy density (SED) magnitudes are high in subadult individuals with resulting bone growth in the supraorbital torus. We developed three micro‐CT‐based FEA models of M. fascicularis skulls ranging in dental age from deciduous to permanent dentitions and validated them against published experimental data. Applied masticatory muscle forces were estimated from physiological cross‐sectional areas of macaque cadaveric specimens. The models were sequentially constrained at each working side tooth to simulate the variation of the bite point applied during masticatory function. Custom FEA software was used to solve the voxel‐based models and SED and principal strains were computed. A physiological superposition SED map throughout the face was created by allocating to each element the maximum SED value from each of the load cases. SED values were found to be low in the supraorbital torus region throughout ontogeny, while they were consistently high in the zygomatic arch and infraorbital region. Thus, if the supraorbital torus arises to resist masticatory loads, it is either already adapted in each of our subadult models so that we do not observe high SED or a lower site‐specific bone deposition threshold must apply. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

山西襄汾石沟砂场发现人类枕骨化石

2012年,山西襄汾县南贾镇上鲁村石沟砂场发现一件人类枕骨化石。该化石埋藏于汾河西岸第Ⅲ级阶地的砂砾层,地质时代可能是中更新世晚期。本文对枕骨形态特征进行描述,并将其与亚洲直立人、早期智人、早期现代人相关标本进行对比。观察发现,石沟古人类具有印加骨的形态特征,为中国古人类印加骨高频出现增添了新的证据;枕鳞中部没有发育枕骨圆枕,而具有最上项线,显示出枕骨形态的进步性,推测石沟古人类可能属于早期现代人。石沟古人类枕骨化石对于探讨中国及东亚地区古人类的系统演化问题提供了证据。     

Main patterns and individual differences in baboon skull split-lines and theories of causes of split-line orientation in bone

Split-line patterns are reported in skulls of five adult male baboons. While variations in pattern occur in all parts of the skull, these variations are relatively minor in the following regions: supraorbital, lateral orbital, medial orbital, nasal bones, zygomatico-alveolar crest, nasal opening, alveolar process of maxilla and mandible. Wide differences in pattern occur in these regions: infraorbital, zygomatic bone, body of maxilla, and frontal bone posterior to the supraorbital area. The major variability in split-line orientation indicates that oversimplified interpretations of the patterns in terms of (1) conformity to gross structure, or (2) direction of bone growth, are untenable. The variations do not contradict a functional interpretation in which mechanical forces and skull form interact to different degrees in different individuals, however. Skulls of a variety of primates are useful for functional analysis, because they have similar structural plans, but the differences are well outside the normal range of variation for a single species.