Morphological and morphometric analysis of variation in the Zhoukoudian Homo erectus brain endocasts

Abstract

The six Zhoukoudian (ZKD) Locality 1 Homo erectus specimens derive from stratigraphic levels 11–3 with a geochronological span of approximately 0.3 Ma. This paper introduces the history of the ZKD endocasts and presents data on their morphological features and linear dimensions in order to evaluate variability in the sample over time and in the broader context of human brain evolution using a comparative sample of African and other Asian H. erectus fossils and modern Chinese males. The ZKD brains are very similar in their morphological characteristics, but there are also significant but subtle changes involving expansion of the frontal and occipital lobe breadths that correlate with the geochronology. The same is not true for general endocranial volume. The ZKD brains, together with other Asian and African H. erectus specimens, have low height dimensions and short parietal chords that distinguish them from the modern Chinese. Furthermore, the lack of geographical patterning in the fossil sample, as determined by Principal Components Analysis, provides no support for arguments advocating the splitting of H. erectus into separate taxa.