Absolute and relative endocranial size in Neandertals and later Pleistocene Homo

Publication date: October 2014 Source:HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology, Volume 65, Issue 5 Author(s): Andrew Gallagher Eurasian Neandertals encompass the entire observed range of recent and fossil Homo sapiens in absolute, but not relative endocranial volume, and Neandertals attest an average EQ significantly lower than their Upper Pleistocene successors. While the cognitive, social, and evolutionary implications of this phenomenon have been emphasised, the statistical basis of a mean inference of EQ in the Neandertal hypodigm has not been appropriately demonstrated. A demonstrable male bias in the available postcranial, not cranial, series has skewed perceptions of Neandertal brain-to-body size scaling towards a rejection of the null hypothesis. A simple resolution to this problem is a concise assessment of paired associated covariates against a suitable recent human comparator series. Permutations of Fisher's z and Student's t statistics are valid metrics in tests of significance in single datum hypotheses. Bootstrapped single observation tests determined significance in body size, absolute and relative endocranial volume in Pleistocene archaic, early modern, and late Pleistocene H. sapiens. With respect to absolute ECV, all current Middle–Upper Pleistocene crania fall within the substantial recent Homo range. Nevertheless, simple indices derived from raw and modified data in normal and logarithmic space reveal that Western European Neandertal males approa...
Source: HOMO Journal of Comparative Human Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: research