Adult Crania Research Articles

The posterior deep temporal nerve: Its relationship with the human cranial base

In an earlier dry-skull study (Dias et al. [2001] Int J Osteoarchaeol 11:241-248), a hitherto undescribed groove was observed in the infratemporal region of the greater wing of the sphenoid bone in the cranial base, passing laterally from the foramen ovale onto the squamous temporal bone. We found a very high incidence of this groove, 81% on one side at least, in modern South-Asian Indian adult crania, but much less so, 50%, in a Polynesian sample of both New Zealand Maori and Moriori adult crania. This article reports our finding of the groove, at least on one side, in 85% of a modern Portuguese skeletal population, and our dissection study on twenty European cadavers confirms that the groove, present in all, is formed by the posterior deep temporal nerve.

A study of vault porosities in early Upper Egypt from the Badarian through Dynasty I

Predynastic and Early Dynastic Upper Egyptian adult crania were assessed for porotic hyperostosis. This lesion (in adults) is believed most often to reflect iron deficiency anaemia that has occurred in childhood. The results indicate an increase in frequency from the Badarian to Naqada I with a subsequent decline to Dynasty I. This pattern is discussed in terms of subsistence change and its possible relationship to exposure to schistosomiasis, hookworm, and various possible adaptive responses.

Biomechanical association of dental and temporomandibular pathology in a medieval Nubian population

An analysis of the relationship between oral pathology and degenerative change at the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) was undertaken on an archaeological sample of 122 adult crania from the Medieval site of Kulubnarti in Sudanese Nubia. The crania were sorted into 2 groups: those demonstrating clearly visible bony changes at the joint (TMJ+) and those without visible change (TMJ-). These groups were compared according to 1) age; 2) sex; 3) active dental pathologies (abscesses, caries, partial socket resorption); 4) tooth loss with complete socket resorption; and 5) dental attrition. No statistically significant association was evident between degenerative change at the TMJ and age, active dental pathologies, or dental attrition; however, sex differences and posterior tooth loss with complete socket resorption revealed a significant correspondence to degenerative TMJ changes. Both of these factors agree with the clinical literature and with biomechanical models (most notably that of Hylander) based upon modern populations. Furthermore, the results support the contention that paleopathological conditions can be analyzed from a clinical and functional biomechanical perspective.

Implications of Border Cave Skeletal Remains for Later Pleistocene Human Evolution [and Comments and Reply

Recent excavations have helped to clarify the cultural and stratigraphic sequences at Border Cave, and human skeletal remains recovered at this South African site may well be associated with a Middle Stone Age industry. A partial adult cranium is of particular interest, and this was originally described as quite different both from African Negro and from Bushman individuals. Eleven measurements were taken on the fossil, and these provide a basis for comparison of Border Cave with other crania drawn from extant African populations. Discriminant analysis shows clearly that the cranium lies close to the Hottentot male centroid and is within the range of modern African variation for the measurements employed. It is heavily constructed but not archaic in the fashion of Florisbad or Broken Hill. If the case for antiquity is regarded as firm, then the Border Cave skeleton suggests the presence of Homo sapiens sapiens in southern Africa before 50,000 B.P. and perhaps as early as 115,000 B.P. Hottentot or Bushman-like people may thus have inhabited southern Africa for a long time. This would be consistent with a phyletic view of human evolution, postulating an in situ transition from archaic to more modern man. Whether migration and replacement of populations may have occurred elsewhere is another question, and there is no reason to exclude this as a possibility on a local level, even if waves of replacement did not sweep the Old World late in the Upper Pleistocene. The course of evolution outside of southern Africa cannot be determined from the evidence considered here.

Population differences in cellularity of the mastoid process.

Adult crania from four human skeletal population samples were radiographed in order to study variation of the air cell system in the mastoid process. Six types of processes were recognized, i.e., sclerotic, diploic, diplo-pneumatic, pneumatic, and highly pneumatic. Frequency of non-pneumatized (acellular) processes in Eskimos was significantly lower than that found in the other three populations. Female crania in each sample showed fewer acellular processes than male, but the differences were statistically significant only in the Whites, Eskimos, and total sex samples. While present in each population, frequency of asymmetry of type was significant in only Whites and Eskimos. These results provide some additional evidence that a genetic factor is operant in determining the degree of cellularity of mastoid processes.

New hominids from East Rudolf, Kenya, I.

Important new hominid fossils from the Plio-Pleistocene sediments of Lake Rudolf, Kenya, are described. They include: a partial, adult cranium with most of the calvaria and some of the facial skeleton preserved; a complete right femur; and bones of a single left lower limb--femur and upper and lower parts of the tibia and a small portion of fibula. Detailed comparative descriptions will be published later.

Geographic and Seasonal Variation in the Occurrence of Incompletely Pneumatized Skulls in the House Sparrow

The process of skull ossification or pneumatization, by which most songbirds obtain a double-layered cranium during the first year or so of life, has received detailed documentation for the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) (Nero 1951; Harrison 1960). House Sparrows commonly achieve the fully double-layered, adult cranium by the age of 6 months, with incomplete pneumatization persisting in occasional individuals for a somewhat longer period (up to 221 days in one sparrow seen by Nero). During each of four seasons in 1968-69, I collected P. domesticus at five localities on an east-west transect running from the eastern edge of the Great Plains at Lawrence, Kansas, into the southern Rocky Mountains at Gunnison, Colorado (table 1). These specimens were preserved as flat skins and cleaned skeletons with entire skulls. I collected only individuals which had completed the postjuvenal molt. This restriction, coupled with the observation that all birds collected during spring and summer were in breeding condition, reasonably assures that individuals taken in spring and summer were in at least their second calendar year of life. The occurrence of a few such individuals with skulls not completely ossified (this condition is hereafter abbreviated as snco, the fully pneumatized condition is termed sco) prompted me to assess the proportions of snco's in each seasonal locality sample. Packard (1967) has studied morphological geographic variation in P. domesticus along essentially the same transect. Chi-square tests of proportional differences in twoway contingency tables provided the statistical foundation for all of the following analyses.

Comparison of Juvenile Skulls of the Mustelid Genera Taxidea and Meles, with Comments on the Subfamily Taxidiinae Pocock

Pocock regarded the badgers of North America (Taxi- dea) to be sufficiently divergent from the European badgers (Meles) as to constitute a separate subfamily (Taxidiinae). His arrangement (which is not currently accepted) was based on differences in adult crania of the two genera, in the shapes of their teeth, and in their exter- nal anatomy (head, feet, and genital and anal areas). He did not men- tion a striking difference in number of permanent premolars between these genera. A baculum of Meles figured in Ognev is remarkably differ- ent from the baculum in Taxidea. Hall has shown the genera to have divergent phylogenies since at least early Pliocene time. Juveniles of these genera exhibit marked differences in the crania and in the shape and number of deciduous teeth. In view of these differences, I regard the name Taxidiinae as valid.

TRANSMISSION OF INTRACRANIAL PRESSURE IN HYDROCEPHALUS IN INFANCY

Most of the studies on pressures within the craniovertebral cavity have been conducted on adult human beings or on full-grown animals. Obviously, the adult cranium and spinal column are relatively fixed in shape and in capacity and can probably be considered as a box completely filled with various soft or fluid substances to which the rules of physics concerning the transmission of pressure where fluids completely fill rigid, communicating containers will apply. We do not propose to challenge the approximate accuracy of such a conception of transmission of pressure in adults, but we feel that the rigid box idea is unsound in theory and in fact frequently invalid in the human infant. In the first place, under every-day stresses the skull and the spinal column of the infant are subject to expansion, contraction and distortion to a degree which makes any such phrase as closed box of constant volume