Anthropology Skull Compare and Contrast Essay

Skull Compare & Contrast

After comparing all of the skulls and discussing their similarities and differences with my classmates we noticed how the skulls had very similar traits but each varied slightly from the other and a couple were completely different from the rest.

Skull #1, which we found to be a Homo Erectus had a slight brow ridge, protrusion of the midfacial region, and a large braincase in proportion to the entire skull. It had small dentures, unspecialized teeth, a small jaw in comparison to the rest of the skull and 32 teeth. Skull #2, which was a Neanderthal, had a protruding brow ridge especially on the sides of the face, small unspecialized teeth, and a small jaw compared to its braincase.

Skull #3 was the gorilla and had an extremely protruding brow ridge and smaller braincase in proportion to the head, a large jaw, gaps for canines on the lower and the upper, thick flat front teeth that were worn down from being omnivorous, a sagittal crest, and was a quadraped. The Homo Sapiens skull #4 was very easy to pick out of the group of skulls because it is of our own skull. It has a large braincase in proportion to the skull, the face is flat and practically at a 90 degree angle. There is a continuous row of teeth that are unspecialized, and its denture shape is parabolic. And it's a given that the h. sapien is bipedal.

Skull #5 was an Australopithecus Boisei skull. It had a protruding brow ridge, and the braincase was small in proportion to the rest of the skull. A continuous row of teeth was present with large molars, a very think jaw bond and thick cheek bones. The face was fairly flat and a sagittal crest is also present at the top of the skull. Skull #6 was the Australopithecus Africanus which was different from all the rest by the skull being exceptionally smaller than any of the others. The braincase was relatively large in comparison to the rest of the skull. No protruding brow ridge, a smaller jaw but rather thick and it also had small unspecialized teeth.

Many anthropologists think that the increase in brain size is linked to the emergence of stone toolmaking which happened about 2.5 million years ago. By comparing some of the skulls you can make an educated guess that the species with larger braincases and sizes could have possible been part of stone toolmaking.