title: Exploring the dorsal surface of hominoid brain endocasts by stereoplotter and discriminant analysis.
abstract: One of the more vexing problems with hominoid endocasts has been to secure reliable information that goes beyond their volumes. One method is explored here, where a large number (N = 171) of radial distances from a homologous internal central point to the dorsal endocast surface are measured in a polar coordinate system. From two pilot studies, one with a hominoid sample of N = 64, and the other with an enlarged sample of N = 92, the following results can be mentioned tentatively: (1) there are residual data that differ taxonomically in different cortical regions once overall endocast size is corrected in allometric fashion; (2) the major cortical regions where these differences appear most strongly are in the lower parietal lobule, anterior occipital zone, and the dorsoanterior region of the frontal lobe; (3) the method shows excellent promise in objectively and quantitatively depicting taxa-specific shape differences in functionally understood cortical regions through multivariate statistical analyses.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000885:Anthropology, Physical / Q000379:methods*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003201:Computers; D005580:Fossils; D006071:Gorilla gorilla / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D000882:Haplorhini / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D010163:Paleontology; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D013223:Statistics as Topic