Cognitive and behavioral modernity in Homo erectus: skull globularity and hominin brain evolution
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2478/anre-2021-0030Keywords:
Cranial shape, masticatory adaptations, Acheulian industry, cognition, Homo erectusAbstract
In this article we provide evidence that evolutionary pressures altered the cranial base and the mastoid region of the temporal bone more than the calvaria in the transition from H. erectus to H. sapiens. This process seems to have resulted in the evolution of more globular skull shape – but not as a result of expansion of the brain in the parietal regions but of reduction of the cranial base and the mastoid region relative to the parietals. Consequently, we argue that expansion of the parietals seems to be unrelated to brain evolution, but is more a by-product of reduction in other regions of the skull, reduction that may be related to dietary factors. Additionally, these findings suggest that cognitive and behavioural modernity may not necessarily be dependent on brain shape. Also, it cannot be attributed to the change in brain size because H. erectus and modern human cranial capacities overlap substantially. Consequently, we suggest H. erectus possessed the full suite of cognitive adaptations characteristic of modern humans without possessing a globular skull with flared parietals. Our results also support the theory that paedomorphic morphogenesis of the skull was important in the transition from H. erectus to H. sapiens and that such changes may be related to both dietary factors and social evolution.
Downloads
References
Abbie A. 1975. Studies in Physical Anthropology, vol.II. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra.
Antón SC. 1997. Developmental age and taxonomic affinity of the Mojokerto child, Java, Indonesia’, Am J Phys Anthropol 102(4):497–514.
Balzeau A, Grimaud-Hervé D, Jacob T. 2005. Internal cranial features of the Mojokerto child fossil (East Java, Indonesia). J Hum Evol 48(6):535–53.
Bednarik RG. 1995. Concept-Mediated Marking in the Lower Palaeolithic. Curr Anthropol 36(4):605–34.
Bednarik RG. 2011. The Human Condition. New York: Springer New York.
Bednarik RG. 2013. Creating the Human Past: An Epistemology of Pleistocene Archaeology, Archaeopress.
Bednarik RG. 2015. The First Mariners. Bentham Science Publishers.
Benítez-Burraco A, Kempe V. 2018. The Emergence of Modern Languages: Has Human Self-Domestication Optimized Language Transmission?. Frontiers in Psychology 9(551) April-17.
Bhattacharya A, Bhatia A, Patel D, Mehta N, Parekh H, Trivedi R. 2014. Evaluation of relationship between cranial base angle and maxillofacial morphology in Indian population: A cephalometric study. J Orthodon Sci 3(3):74–80.
Bjork A. 1950. Some biological aspects of prognathism and occlusion of the teeth. Acta Odontol Scand 9(1):1–40.
Boeckx C, Benítez-Burraco A. 2014. The shape of the human language-ready brain. Fron Psychol 5(282) 2014-April-04.
Bolk L. 1909. On the position and displacement of the foramen magnum in the primates. Verh Akad Wet 12:362–377.
Bowler JM, Johnston H, Olley JM, Prescott JR, Roberts RG, Shawcross W, Spooner NA. 2003. New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia. Nature 421(6925):837–40.
Bowler JM, Jones R, Allen H, Thorne AG. 1970. Pleistocene human remains from Australia: a living site and human cremation from Lake Mungo, Western New South Wales. World Archaeology 2(1):39–60.
Bowler JM, Price DM, Sherwood J, Carey SP. 2018. The Moyjil Site, South-West Victoria, Australia: Fire And Environment In A 120,000-Year Coastal Midden —Nature Or People?. The Royal Society of Victoria 130:71–93.
Bowler JM, Thorne AG. 1976. Human Remains from Lake Mungo. In: RL Kirk and AG Thorne (editors). The Origin of the Australians. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, Australia, pp. 127–38.
Carhart-Harris RL, Friston KJ. 2010. The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas. Brain 133(4):1265–83.
Carhart-Harris RL, Leech R, Hellyer PJ, Shanahan M, Feilding A, Tagliazucchi E, Chialvo DR, Nutt D. 2014. The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs. Front Hum Neurosci. doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00020.
Cieri RL, Churchill SE, Franciscus, RG, Tan J, Hare B. 2014. Craniofacial Feminization, Social Tolerance, and the Origins of Behavioral Modernity. Curr Anthropol 55(4):419–43.
Clark G, Henneberg M. 2015. The life history of Ardipithecus ramidus: a heterochronic model of sexual and social maturation. Anthropol Rev 78(2):109–32.
Clark G, Henneberg M. 2017. Ardipithecus ramidus and the evolution of language and singing: An early origin for hominin vocal capability. HOMO 68(2):101–21.
Clarkson C, Jacobs Z, Marwick B, Fullagar R, Wallis L, Smith M et al. 2017, Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago. Nature 547:306–10.
Curnoe D. 2011. A 150-year conundrum: cranial robusticity and its bearing on the origin of Aboriginal Australians. Int J Evol Biol 2011:632484.
Curnoe D, Green H. 2013. Vault thickness in two Pleistocene Australian crania. J Archaeol Sci 40(2):1310–8.
Dean MC, Wood BA. 1984. Phylogeny, Neoteny and Growth of the Cranial Base in Hominoids. Folia Primatologica 43(2–3)157–80.
DeLouize AM, Coolidge FL, Wynn T. 2017. Dopaminergic systems expansion and the advent of Homo erectus. Quaternary International 427:245–52.
Durband AC. 2009. Southeast Asian and Australian paleoanthropology: a review of the last century. J Anthropol Sci 87:7–31.
Fox CL, Martín AG, Civit SV. 1996. Cranial variation in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands: Inferences about the history of the population. Am J Phys Anthropol 99(3):413–28.
Górny S. 1957. Crania africana: Uganda. Wroclaw: PWN.
Gould SJ. 1977. Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Grün R, Spooner N, Magee J, Thorne A, Simpson J, Yan G, Mortimer G. 2011. Stratigraphy and chronology of the WLH 50 human remains, Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area, Australia. J Hum Evol 60(5):597–604.
Hare B. 2017. Survival of the Friendliest: Homo sapiens Evolved via Selection for Prosociality. Annu Rev Psychol 68:155–86.
Hiatt B. 1969. Cremation in Aboriginal Australia. Mankind 7(2):104–19.
Hylander WL. 2013. Functional links between canine height and jaw gape in catarrhines with special reference to early hominins. Am J Phys Anthropol 150(2):247–59.
Isler K, Kirk CE, Miller JM, Albrecht GA, Gelvin BR, Martin RD. 2008. Endocranial volumes of primate species: scaling analyses using a comprehensive and reliable data set. J Hum Evol 55(6):967–78.
Knight C. 1995. Blood Relations: Menstruation and the Origins of Culture. New Haven and London: Yale University Press,.
Knight C. 2009. Early Human Kinship was Matrilineal. New Jersey: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Hoboken, pp. 61–82.
Knight C, Power C, Watts I, Power C. 2008. The Human Symbolic Revolution: A Darwinian Account. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 5(1):75–114.
Kuman K, Li C, Li H. 2014. Large cutting tools in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Region, central China. J Hum Evol 76:129–53.
Li H, Li C, Kuman K. 2014. Rethinking the “Acheulean” in East Asia: Evidence from recent investigations in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Region, central China. Quaternary International 347:163–75.
Lieberman D. 2011. The Evolution of the Human Head. Harvard University Press.
Lieberman D, McBratney BM, Krovitz G. 2002. The evolution and development of cranial form in Homo sapiens. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99(3):1134–9.
Lieberman D, Pearson OM, Mowbray KM. 2000. Basicranial influence on overall cranial shape. J Hum Evol 38(2):291–315.
Lou HC, Changeux JP, Rosenstand A. 2017. Towards a cognitive neuroscience of self-awareness. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 83:765–73.
Lovejoy CO. 2009. Reexamining Human Origins in Light of Ardipithecus ramidus. Science 326(5949):71–78, 74e71–74e78.
Lubsen K, Corruccini RS. 2011. Morphometric Analysis of the Herto Cranium (BOU-VP-16/1): Where Does It Fit?. J Contemp Anthropol 2:1–16.
Mars RB, Neubert F-X, Noonan MP, Sallet J, Toni I, Rushworth MFS. 2012. On the relationship between the “default mode network” and the “social brain”. Fron Hum Neurosci 6:189.
McKinnon MR, Simpson EK, Henneberg. M 2018. Growth Patterns and Individual Variation in Mid-sagittal Facial Soft Tissue Depth from Childhood to Adulthood. J Foren Sci 63(6):1641–51.
Milicerowa H. 1955. Crania Australica. Wroclaw: PWN.
Morant GM. 1930. Studies of Paleolithic Man. Annals of Eugenics 4(1–2):109–214.
Neubauer S, Hublin J-J, Gunz P. 2018. The evolution of modern human brain shape. Science Advances 4(1):eaao5961.
Niego A, Benítez-Burraco A. 2019. Williams Syndrome, Human Self-Domestication, and Language Evolution. Fron Psychol 10(521).
Ostby Y, Walhovd KB, Tamnes CK, Grydeland H, Westlye LT, Fjell AM. 2012. Mental time travel and default-mode network functional connectivity in the developing brain. PNAS 109(42):16800–4.
Parsons KJ, Albertson RC. 2009. Roles for Bmp4 and CaM1 in Shaping the Jaw: Evo-Devo and Beyond. Annu Rev Genet 43(1):369–88.
Power C. 2004. Women in Prehistoric Rock Art. In: G Berghaus (editor). New Perspectives on Prehistoric Art. Praeger, Westport, CT/London, pp. 75–103.
Previc FH. 1999. Dopamine and the Origins of Human Intelligence. Brain Cogn 41(3):299–350.
Previc FH. 2009. The Dopaminergic Mind in Human Evolution and History. Cambridge University Press.
Progovac L, Benítez-Burraco A. 2019. From Physical Aggression to Verbal Behavior: Language Evolution and Self-Domestication Feedback Loop. Fron Psychol 10(2807) 2019-December-18.
Qiu L, Su J, Ni Y, Bai Y, Zhang X, Li X, Wan X. 2018. The neural system of metacognition accompanying decision-making in the prefrontal cortex. PLOS Biology 26(4):e2004037-e2004037.
Rightmire GP. 2013. Homo erectus and Middle Pleistocene hominins: brain size, skull form, and species recognition. J Hum Evol 65(3):223–52.
Rilling JK, Barks SK, Parr LA, Preuss TM, Faber TL, Pagnoni G, Bremner JD, Votaw JR. 2007. A comparison of resting-state brain activity in humans and chimpanzees. PNAS 104(43):17146–51.
Roche AF, Lewis AB. 1976. Late Growth Changes in the Cranial Base. In: JF Bosma (editor). Symposium on Development of the Basicranium, University of Michigan, Michigan, USA.
Roche AF, Lewis AB, Wainer H, McCartin R. 1977. Late Elongation of the Cranial Base. J Dental Res 56(7):802–8.
Russo GA, Kirk EC. 2017. Another look at the foramen magnum in bipedal mammals. J Hum Evol 105:24–40.
Sejrsen B, Jakobsen J, Skovgaard LT, Kjaer I. 1997. Growth in the external cranial base evaluated on human dry skulls, using nerve canal openings as references. Acta Odontol Scand 55(6):356–64.
Shen C, Gao X, Wei Q. 2011. The Earliest Hominin Occupations in the Nihewan Basin of Northern China: Recent Progress in Field Investigations. In: CJ Norton, and DR Braun (editors). Asian Paleoanthropology: From Africa to China and Beyond. Dordrecht Springer Netherlands, pp. 169–180.
Sterelny K. 2012. The Evolved Apprentice, MIT Press.
Stout D, Hecht E, Khreisheh N, Bradley B, Chaminade T. 2015. Cognitive Demands of Lower Paleolithic Toolmaking. PLOS ONE 10(4):e0121804.
Suwa G, Asfaw B, Kono RT, Kubo D, Lovejoy CO, White TD. 2009. The Ardipithecus ramidus Skull and Its Implications for Hominid Origins. Science 326(5949):68–68, 68e61–68e67.
Thorne AG. 1976. Morphological contrasts in Pleistocene Australians. In: RL Kirk, and AG Thorn (editors). The Origin of the Australians, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Canberra, Australia, pp. 95–112.
Wang W, Lycett SJ, von Cramon-Taubadel N, Jin JJH, Bae CJ. 2012. Comparison of Handaxes from Bose Basin (China) and the Western Acheulean Indicates Convergence of Form, Not Cognitive Differences. PLOS ONE 7(4):e35804.
Watts I, Chazan M, Wilkins J. 2016. Early Evidence for Brilliant Ritualized Display: Specularite Use in the Northern Cape (South Africa) between 500 and 300 Ka. Curr Anthropol 57(3):287–310.
Webb S. 2006. The First Boat People. Cambridge University Press.
Webb S. 2018a. Chapter 10 – Willandra Lakes Skeletal Collection: A Photographic and Descriptive Catalogue. In: S Webb (editor). Made in Africa. Academic Press, pp. 301–400.
Webb S. 2018b. Made in Africa: Hominin Explorations and the Australian Skeletal Evidence, Elsevier Science.
Weidenreich F. 1943. The Skull of Sinanthropus Pekinensis: A Comparative Study on a Primitive Hominid Skull, Geological Survey of China.
White TD, Asfaw B, DeGusta D, Gilbert H, Richards GD, Suwa G, Clark Howell F. 2003. Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Nature 423(6941):742–7.
Wokroj F. 1953. Wczesnos redniowieczne czaszki polskie z Ostrowa Lednickiego. Materialy i Prace Antropologiczne, vol. 1.
Yamei H, Potts R, Baoyin Y, Zhengtang G, Deino A, Wei W, Clark J, Guangmao X, Weiwen H. 2000. Mid-Pleistocene Acheulean-like Stone Technology of the Bose Basin, South China. Science 287(5458):1622.
Yang S-X, Petraglia MD, Hou Y-M, Yue J-P, Deng C-L, Zhu R-X. 2017. The lithic assemblages of Donggutuo, Nihewan basin: Knapping skills of Early Pleistocene hominins in North China. PLOS ONE 12(9):e0185101.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
