The brain morphology of Homo Liujiang cranium fossil by three-dimensional computed tomography  

作　　者：WU XiuJie LIU Wu DONG Wei QUE JieMin WANG YanFang 

机构地区：[1]Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, ChineseAcademy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China [2]Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

出　　处：《Chinese Science Bulletin》2008年第16期2513-2519,共7页

基　　金：the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sci-ences (Grant No. KZCX2-YW-106);the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40772018); the Major Basic Research Projects (Grant No. 2006CB806400) ;the International Cooperation Program of MST of China (Grant No. 2007DFB20330)

摘　　要：The Liujiang cranium is the most complete and well-preserved late Pleistocene human fossils ever unearthed in south China. Because the endocranial cavity is filled with hard stone matrix, earlier stud- ies focused only on the exterior morphology of the specimen using the traditional methods. In order to derive more information for the phyletic evaluation of the Liujiang cranium, high-resolution industrial computed tomography (CT) was used to scan the fossil, and the three-dimensional (3D) brain image was reconstructed. Compared with the endocasts of the hominin fossils (Hexian, Zhoukoudian, KNM-WT 15000, Sm 3, Kabwe, Brunn 3, Predmost) and modern Chinese, most morphological features of the Liujiang brain are in common with modern humans, including a round brain shape, bulged and wide frontal lobes, an enlarged brain height, a full orbital margin and long parietal lobes. A few differ- ences exist between Liujiang and the modern Chinese in our sample, including a strong posterior pro- jection of the occipital lobes, and a reduced cerebellar lobe. The measurement of the virtual endocast shows that the endocranial capacity of Liujiang is 1567 cc, which is in the range of Late Homo sapiens and much beyond the mean of modern humans. The brain morphology of Liujiang is assigned to Late Homo sapiens.The Liujiang cranium is the most complete and well-preserved late Pleistocene human fossils ever unearthed in south China. Because the endocranial cavity is filled with hard stone matrix, earlier studies focused only on the exterior morphology of the specimen using the traditional methods. In order to derive more information for the phyletic evaluation of the Liujiang cranium, high-resolution industrial computed tomography （CT） was used to scan the fossil, and the three-dimensional （3D） brain image was reconstructed. Compared with the endocasts of the hominin fossils （Hexian, Zhoukoudian, KNM-WT 15000, Sm 3, Kabwe, Brunn 3, Predmost） and modern Chinese, most morphological features of the Liujiang brain are in common with modern humans, including a round brain shape, bulged and wide frontal lobes, an enlarged brain height, a full orbital margin and long parietal lobes. A few differences exist between Liujiang and the modern Chinese in our sample, including a strong posterior projection of the occipital lobes, and a reduced cerebellar lobe. The measurement of the virtual endocast shows that the endocranial capacity of Liujiang is 1567 cc, which is in the range of Late Homo sapiens and much beyond the mean of modern humans. The brain morphology of Liujiang is assigned to Late Homo sapiens.

关 键 词：头盖骨 更新世 中国南方 人类学 

分 类 号：Q98[生物学—人类学]