Endocasts and the Evo-Devo Approach to Study Human Brain Evolution

Abstract

The brain is a highly plastic organ and is shaped not only during prenatal but also during postnatal development. The analysis and comparison of ontogenetic patterns of endocranial size increase and endocranial shape changes can therefore add further evidence for the interpretation of hominin brain evolution. Here we focus on digital endocast data and the methodology used to document and compare developmental patterns of endocranial shape changes. We outline how geometric morphometrics of endocranial landmark data can be used in an evo-devo approach to human brain evolution, discuss how developmental simulations help to compare ontogenetic patterns among species, present different visuali-zation techniques that help to interpret ontogenetic shape changes, provide an overview of our current knowledge, present new data on early postnatal shape changes in apes, and discuss open questions. Keywords