Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
during hominin evolution. This makes perfect sense in light of what is
known about the mechanical properties involved in the development of
about the lunate sulcus, he deserves credit for pioneering the field of
hominin paleoneurology, including his belatedly revealed interpreta-
tion of advanced shape features across the surface of Taung's endocast
that presaged more recent discoveries.
Studying endocasts entails a necessary element of speculation, be-
cause, until a time machine is invented, as I mentioned in chapter 2,
we have no way to use modern technology to study the neurological
functions of our prehistoric ancestors. Doing research on endocasts is
also frustrating, because the information that can be gleaned from them
is, literally, superficial. As we have seen, Dart's critics caused him great
distress. Perhaps it was in response to them that he wrote the following
defense of studying primate endocasts, with an eloquence that will be
appreciated by any paleoneurologist who has been accused of practic-
ing phrenology (which is an occupational hazard):
If the form of endocranial cast is unintelligible, the comparative neurologi-
cal studies of the last half century are a mockery, a delusion and a snare.
It would be deplorable if, at this stage of neurological history, no tangible
conclusions could be drawn from the shape of the simian endocranial cast,
which Nature has provided for scrutiny; and dismal indeed, when the gap
separating Man from the Apes is so patently cerebral and psychological,
rather than structural or bodily. Such an attitude towards the study of endo-
When I first sat in the Wits Archives and set eyes on Dart's analyses
of the three significant areas that had advanced shapes on Taung's endo-
cast, I was utterly amazed. My astonishment was not caused by any-
thing I knew about australopithecine endocasts. Rather, it was caused
by what I had learned about the endocast of another hominin that was
is Hobbit, and she lived a mere 18,000 years ago on the island of Flores,
in Indonesia. Hobbit's species
(Homo floresiensis)
is currently at the center
