The brain morphology of Homo Liujiang cranium fossil by three-dimensional computed tomography

摘要

The Liujiang cranium is the most complete and well-preserved late Pleistocene human fossils ever unearthed in south China. Because the endocranial cavity is filled with hard stone matrix, earlier studies focused only on the exterior morphology of the specimen using the traditional methods. In order to derive more information for the phyletic evaluation of the Liujiang cranium, high-resolution industrial computed tomography (CT) was used to scan the fossil, and the three-dimensional (3D) brain image was reconstructed. Compared with the endocasts of the hominin fossils (Hexian, Zhoukoudian, KNM-WT 15000, Sm 3, Kabwe, Brunn 3, Predmost) and modern Chinese, most morphological features of the Liujiang brain are in common with modern humans, including a round brain shape, bulged and wide frontal lobes, an enlarged brain height, a full orbital margin and long parietal lobes. A few differences exist between Liujiang and the modern Chinese in our sample, including a strong posterior projection of the occipital lobes, and a reduced cerebellar lobe. The measurement of the virtual endocast shows that the endocranial capacity of Liujiang is 1567 cc, which is in the range of Late Homo sapiens and much beyond the mean of modern humans. The brain morphology of Liujiang is assigned to Late Homo sapiens.