Endomaker, a new algorithm for fully automatic extraction of cranial endocasts and the calculation of their volumes.

Abstract

Reproducing cranial endocasts is a major goal of researchers interested in vertebrate brain evolution. We present a new R software, named endomaker, which allows the automatic extraction of endocasts from skull meshes along with the calculation of its volume. We applied endomaker on non-primate and primate skulls including the Australopithecus africanus specimen Sts-5. We proved endomaker is faster, more feature-rich and possibly more accurate than competing software. Endomaker is the only available program endowed with the possibility to process an entire mesh directory straight away, promising to expand the scope and phylogenetic breadth of comparative studies of brain evolution.