Questions about endocasts of fossil hominid brains

Bill Hamilton (hamilton@predator.cs.gmr.com)
Wed, 3 Jan 1996 08:58:20 -0500

I presume an endocast is a cast of the inside of the skull (which leaves
the question: how do the extract the cast after making it? Maybe they use a
layer of flexible material which when it solidifies can be withdrawn
through an opening? Surely they don't break the skull. Or maybe they use
partial skulls?)

My (main) questions are: What do endocasts show? Do they actually show the
shape of the brain? Down to what level of detail? Or do they simply show
the shape of the skull which contained the brain, in which case some
details about brain structure are lost. If they show the shape of the
brain, how can this be? I thought soft parts generaly just decayed,
leaving only hard parts like bones to fossilize.

Bill Hamilton | Vehicle Systems Research
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