Book contents
- African Genesis:
- Series page
- African Genesis
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 African Genesis: an evolving paradigm
- 2 Academic genealogy
- Part I In search of origins: evolutionary theory, new species and paths into the past
- Part II Hominin morphology through time: brains, bodies and teeth
- 8 Hominin brain evolution, 1925–2011: an emerging overview
- 9 The issue of brain reorganisation in Australopithecus and early hominids: Dart had it right
- 10 The mass of the human brain: is it a spandrel?
- 11 Origin and diversity of early hominin bipedalism
- 12 Forelimb adaptations in Australopithecus afarensis
- 13 Hominin proximal femur morphology from the Tugen Hills to Flores
- 14 Daily rates of dentine formation and root extension rates in Paranthropus boisei, KNM-ER 1817, from Koobi Fora, Kenya
- 15 On the evolutionary development of early hominid molar teeth and the Gondolin Paranthropus molar
- 16 Digital South African fossils: morphological studies using reference-based reconstruction and electronic preparation
- Part III Modern human origins: patterns and processes
- Part IV In search of context: hominin environments, behaviour and lithic cultures
- Index
- Plate Section
9 - The issue of brain reorganisation in Australopithecus and early hominids: Dart had it right
from Part II - Hominin morphology through time: brains, bodies and teeth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2012
- African Genesis:
- Series page
- African Genesis
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 African Genesis: an evolving paradigm
- 2 Academic genealogy
- Part I In search of origins: evolutionary theory, new species and paths into the past
- Part II Hominin morphology through time: brains, bodies and teeth
- 8 Hominin brain evolution, 1925–2011: an emerging overview
- 9 The issue of brain reorganisation in Australopithecus and early hominids: Dart had it right
- 10 The mass of the human brain: is it a spandrel?
- 11 Origin and diversity of early hominin bipedalism
- 12 Forelimb adaptations in Australopithecus afarensis
- 13 Hominin proximal femur morphology from the Tugen Hills to Flores
- 14 Daily rates of dentine formation and root extension rates in Paranthropus boisei, KNM-ER 1817, from Koobi Fora, Kenya
- 15 On the evolutionary development of early hominid molar teeth and the Gondolin Paranthropus molar
- 16 Digital South African fossils: morphological studies using reference-based reconstruction and electronic preparation
- Part III Modern human origins: patterns and processes
- Part IV In search of context: hominin environments, behaviour and lithic cultures
- Index
- Plate Section
Summary
In commemoration of P. V. Tobias’s 80th birthday, and the 80th year since Dart published his paper on Taung, newer studies on chimpanzee brains and newer fossil discoveries (e.g. Hadar 162–28, StW 505) make it appropriate to re-assess Dart’s original contribution. The matter of where to place the lunate sulcus has been a controversial issue, but the contrast between the Taung child’s endocast morphology, and that of pongids, particularly the chimpanzee, as well as the clear-cut lunate sulcus in a posterior position of StW 505 indicate that Dart was indeed right, and that the brain of australopithecines was reorganised prior to any size increase in endocranial volume. This reorganisation involved a relative increase in posterior parietal association cortex, the flip-side, as it were, of a relative reduction in primary visual striate cortex. It is most probable that the changes in cerebral organisation were an adaptive response to changing and expanding ecological opportunities for these early hominids. The latter development of any major size increase of the whole brain had to await the evolution of Homo lineages. Clearly, from at least three million years ago, the evolution of the hominid brain has been a mosaic process of both size increases, allometric and non-allometric, as well as critical reorganisational changes, of which the posterior placement of the lunate sulcus is proof of that change, which Dart had already appreciated in 1924–5.
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- African GenesisPerspectives on Hominin Evolution, pp. 163 - 180Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012
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