title: Technical note: the midline and endocranial volume of the Taung endocast.
abstract: The Taung endocast is one of the best-preserved and most important known in paleoanthropology. Although the endocast is undistorted and preserves distinctive landmarks, Taung has proved a difficult endocast, because it is only about 60% complete. To reconstruct Taung it is necessary to first use the available anatomical landmarks to define the midline of the endocast. It is only with a proper description of the midline that it is possible to reconstruct the endocast and obtain an accurate measurement of Taung's endocranial volume. Holloway (Science 168 (1970) 966-968) determined a conservative estimate for Taung of 404 ml. More recently this estimate has been revised downward by Falk and Clarke (Am J Phys Anthropol 134 (2007) 529-534) to 382 ml, giving Taung the smallest endocast for A. africanus. Certain challenges exist with the reconstruction of any endocast, particularly a hemi-endocast such as Taung. A virtual reconstruction of Taung must assume perfect symmetry, a feature called into question here in Taung's most recent reconstruction by Falk and Clarke (2007). Holloway's (1970) reconstruction of Taung provides a guidepost for a conservative approach to endocast reconstructions, and the most reliable measurement of Taung's true endocranial volume.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. rlh2@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Ralph L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Holloway
authors.forename: Douglas C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Broadfield
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005580:Fossils; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D010163:Paleontology; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology*