In the gift shop of the Canberra Dinosaur Museum is a display that to me is the highlight of the whole museum. Casts of the skeleton of Lucy and skulls from other human ancestors and their cousins. The shocker for me is how much the size of the skulls differs from species to species. The skull of Gigantopithecus is at least twice the weight of a modern human skull. Whereas skulls of other human ancestors of about the same time are less than a tenth of the weight of H sapiens. We seldom see so many human ancestor skulls together in a single display.

Skeleton of Lucy, Homo habilis (you can see other skulls below with Neanderthal at the furthest right.

Laetoli footprints.

Africanus, Habilis and Erectus/Ergaster

Erectus, Heidelberg and Neanderthal. The sequence of skull shapes is clear.

Neanderthal+Sapiens hybrid and Sapiens. There is a very clear difference.

And all together.

Gigantopithecus, Rhinocolobus, Paranthropus bosei, Aegyptopithecus, Proconsul and the Turkana boy. Note the enormous differences in size and robustness.

mollwollfumble said:

In the gift shop of the Canberra Dinosaur Museum is a display that to me is the highlight of the whole museum. Casts of the skeleton of Lucy and skulls from other human ancestors and their cousins. The shocker for me is how much the size of the skulls differs from species to species. The skull of Gigantopithecus is at least twice the weight of a modern human skull. Whereas skulls of other human ancestors of about the same time are less than a tenth of the weight of H sapiens. We seldom see so many human ancestor skulls together in a single display.

Skeleton of Lucy, Homo habilis (you can see other skulls below with Neanderthal at the furthest right.

Laetoli footprints.

Africanus, Habilis and Erectus/Ergaster

Erectus, Heidelberg and Neanderthal. The sequence of skull shapes is clear.

Neanderthal+Sapiens hybrid and Sapiens. There is a very clear difference.

And all together.

Gigantopithecus, Rhinocolobus, Paranthropus bosei, Aegyptopithecus, Proconsul and the Turkana boy. Note the enormous differences in size and robustness.

Good

Be nice to see the ancestors face-to-face like that.

Gigantopithecus was a much larger animal than modern humans, so the large size of skull is not surprising. The prominent medial ridge is common in animals that are more quadrupedal (it looks very much like a gorilla skull), this is the anchor point of muscles that help hold the head up while ambulating. The brain cavity is relatively small, though. Although brain to body size is indicative, the folds of the cerebral cortex are more indicative of functionality of the animal. (a koala has a fairly good brain to body size, but the brain is smooth with hardly any folds, because they only need to know how to eat and sleep, and occasionally growl, as opposed to doing complex maths and build office blocks.

We have an excellent (though similar) display in the anatomy museum at work of the progression through primate – early human – modern human …

but, to me, that isn’t nearly as interesting as the trauma skulls .. each to their own, I guess.

Arts said:

Gigantopithecus was a much larger animal than modern humans, so the large size of skull is not surprising. The prominent medial ridge is common in animals that are more quadrupedal (it looks very much like a gorilla skull), this is the anchor point of muscles that help hold the head up while ambulating. The brain cavity is relatively small, though. Although brain to body size is indicative, the folds of the cerebral cortex are more indicative of functionality of the animal. (a koala has a fairly good brain to body size, but the brain is smooth with hardly any folds, because they only need to know how to eat and sleep, and occasionally growl, as opposed to doing complex maths and build office blocks.

We have an excellent (though similar) display in the anatomy museum at work of the progression through primate – early human – modern human …

but, to me, that isn’t nearly as interesting as the trauma skulls .. each to their own, I guess.

you rock, ghoul!