Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
for the shooting. Meanwhile, Kirk was still processing the virtual endo-
casts that we needed. We ordered in Chinese food for lunch, and that
evening Fred and Scooter treated everyone to a fabulous meal at an
Asian fusion restaurant.
It was a long day of filming. Scooter, Kirk, Fred, and I had planned
to get as much research done as possible in between takes and during
the numerous inevitable delays. David wanted to include footage of
LB1's virtual endocast compared with others on a computer screen, and
Kirk was still working on producing the last ones that morning. Since
David wanted us to comment on these images, I asked Kirk to print
large hard copies of the side and top views of the virtual endocasts
from LB1, the microcephalic human, a female chimpanzee, a female
Homo erectus,
and a modern woman. This he did, delivering them to us
one by one, slowly but surely. So that we could better compare their
overall shapes, Kirk had adjusted all of the virtual endocasts to have
the same volume as LB1's, which was only 417 cm
3
. For each view, we
arranged the images side by side on a large table as we received them.
Figure 17 shows the final arrangement of the right-side views of the
virtual endocasts.
We were much too excited to wait for all the images to be in place
before beginning our comparisons. The image of Hobbit's virtual endo-
cast went in the center of the table. Kirk then brought us the image for
the normal adult woman, which we placed above LB1's. We all agreed
that the woman's endocast was much higher and fuller than LB1's, espe-
cially in the back.
“Who do you want next?” Kirk asked. Scooter requested the micro-
cephalic, which Kirk brought over and placed to the left of LB1. It looked
very strange because of its large cerebellum, which stuck out below and
at the back of the brain, a configuration that we knew from the clini-
cal literature was typical of microcephalic brains. The microcephalic's
temporal lobes also appeared stubby, and the bottom of its frontal lobe
flat compared with those of the woman and LB1.
I couldn't wait any longer to test my hunch that LB1's endocast would
