D Falk
Biographic Data
| ID | 69232 |
|---|---|
| NAME | D Falk |
| GIVEN NAMES | D |
| FAMILY NAME | Falk |
| SIGNATURE | FALK D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Albany State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1654-0469 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 70 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 840 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 70 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1975 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 17 |
Reconsidering Whether Knuckle‐Walking Gave Rise to Bipedalism in Light of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis
Paleoanthropologists debate whether the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans moved terrestrially by knuckle‐walking or in some other manner preadapted for bipedalism. The answer to this question would shed light on the emergence of one of the most definitive features of early hominins—habitual terrestrial bipedalism. Comparative morphological studies of apes, australopithecines, and modern humans, and investigations of the few putative earli…
Direct Effects of Bipedalism on Early Hominin Fetuses Stimulated Later Musical and Linguistic Evolution
We hypothesize that auditory and motor entrainment evolved in early hominin fetuses in direct response to their mothers' bipedal footsteps and, later, contributed to the evolution of music and language via two related processes. First, selection for bipedalism transformed feet from grasping into weight-bearing organs, which negatively affected infants' ability to cling to their mothers, provoking the emergence of novel affective vocal exchanges b…
Comparative study of manual identification of brain foldings in a living human brain using a proxy-endocast obtained from MRI
The use of virtual endocasts allows investigation of the folding configurations of the cerebral cortex of extinct species. However, is that really possible? Our goal is to help answer this question by qualifying and quantifying the subjective identifications of the foldings on endocasts compared to their real configurations on the brain. We invited 14 paleoneurologists to manually reconstruct the foldings they could recognize in a proxy-endocast …
Annual War Deaths in Small-Scale versus State Societies Scale with Population Size Rather than Violence
In The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, psychologist Steven Pinker cites mean ratios of war (battle) deaths suffered annually per 100,000 individuals as evidence for concluding that people who live in states are less violent than those who live or lived in "hunting, gathering, and horticultural societies in which our species spent most of its evolutionary history." Because such ratios are blind to actual population sizes, i…
Evolution of the Primate Brain
Evolution of the Primate Brain
Colloque annuel de la société d’anthropologie de Paris 1838e Réunion scientifique
International audience
Hominin brain evolution, 1925–2011
Since Raymond Dart named Australopithecus africanus in 1925, palaeoanthropology has been advanced by the discovery of numerous additional australopithecine and other fossil hominins, as well as applications of medical imaging technology for reconstructing and measuring their remains. Although improved dates for some fossils and a better understanding of their developmental trajectories have helped to modify some earlier beliefs about hominin evol…
Reply to holloway and Broadfield's letter to the editor regarding the Taung endocast
On Happiness
What do anthropologists have to say about happiness? For some contributors in this Vital Topics Forum, happiness is a sensory force that colors and shapes human evolution and experience. Others consider happiness, or the lack thereof, to be a faceted reflection of the arrangements in society. All recognize the potential power of human happiness, where a distant memory, fleeting experience, or idealized vision can serve as a driving force in trans…
Nonpathological asymmetry in LB1 ( Homo floresiensis )
The natural endocast of Taung ( Australopithecus africanus )
Dart's 1925 announcement of Australopithecus africanus (Dart: Nature 115 [1925] 195–199) was highly controversial, partly because of an interpretation of the Taung natural endocast that rested on an erroneous identification of the lambdoid suture as the lunate sulcus. Unpublished materials from the University of Witwatersrand Archives (Dart, unpublished material) reveal that Dart reacted to the controversy by: 1) describing and illustrating the e…
The type specimen (LB1) of Homo floresiensis did not have Laron Syndrome
The type specimen (LB1) of Homo floresiensis has been hypothesized to be a pathological human afflicted with Laron Syndrome (LS), a type of primary growth hormone insensitivity (Hershkovitz et al.: Am J Phys Anthropol 134 [2007] 198–208). Comparing measurements, photographs and three‐dimensional, computed‐tomography reconstructions of LB1 with data and diagnoses from the literature on LS, we critically evaluate numerous skull and postcranial trai…
LB1's virtual endocast, microcephaly, and hominin brain evolution
Evolution of the Primate Brain
Brief communication
Earlier reconstructions of the Taung endocast, from the juvenile type specimen for Australopithecus africanus , were achieved without benefit of the advanced computer technology that is available today and before morphological differences were identified that distinguish endocasts of Paranthropus from those of A. africanus . Here, we reconstruct and measure a relatively complete virtual endocast of Taung and provide a new cranial capacity estimat…
Endocranial cast of HexianHomo erectus from South China
In this paper, we present data on the morphological features and linear measurements for the Hexian Homo erectus and other comparative endocasts, in order to highlight variation during human brain evolution. The endocast of Hexian was reconstructed in 1982, and an endocranial volume of 1,025 ml was estimated. The geological age is about 412 ka, or roughly contemporaneous with the Zhoukoudian (ZKD) specimens. There are some differences between Hex…
The Brain of LB1, Homo floresiensis
The brain of Homo floresiensis was assessed by comparing a virtual endocast from the type specimen (LB1) with endocasts from great apes, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens , a human pygmy, a human microcephalic, specimen number Sts 5 ( Australopithecus africanus ), and specimen number WT 17000 ( Paranthropus aethiopicus ). Morphometric, allometric, and shape data indicate that LB1 is not a microcephalic or pygmy. LB1's brain/body size ratio scales like t…
Prelinguistic evolution in early hominins
In order to formulate hypotheses about the evolutionary underpinnings that preceded the first glimmerings of language, mother-infant gestural and vocal interactions are compared in chimpanzees and humans and used to model those of early hominins. These data, along with paleoanthropological evidence, suggest that prelinguistic vocal substrates for protolanguage that had prosodic features similar to contemporary motherese evolved as the trend for e…
Early hominid brain evolution
A quantitative and qualitative reanalysis of the endocast from the juvenileParanthropus specimen l338y-6 from Omo, Ethiopia
Based on an analysis of its endocast, Holloway (1981 Am J Phys Anthropol 53:109-118) attributed the juvenile Omo L338y-6 specimen to Australopithecus africanus (i.e., gracile australopithecines) rather than to Paranthropus (Australopithecus) boisei (robust australopithecines) favored by other workers (Rak and Howell [1978] Am J Phys Anthropol 48:345-366). Holloway's attribution was based on the specimen's (1) low cranial capacity, (2) gracile-lik…
Sex differences in brain/body relationships of Rhesus monkeys and humans
A quantitative and qualitative reanalysis of the endocast from the juvenile Paranthropus specimen l338y-6 from Omo, Ethiopia
Based on an analysis of its endocast, Holloway (1981 Am J Phys Anthropol 53:109–118) attributed the juvenile Omo L338y-6 specimen to Australopithecus africanus (i.e., gracile australopithecines) rather than to Paranthropus (Australopithecus) boisei (robust australopithecines) favored by other workers (Rak and Howell [1978] Am J Phys Anthropol 48:345–366). Holloway's attribution was based on the specimen's (1) low cranial capacity, (2) gracile-lik…
Radiators are cool
Uniquely human. The evolution of speech, thought and selfless behavior
The Archaeology of Perception
Early hominid brain evolution
A comparative study of stereolithographically modelled skulls of Petralona and Broken Hill
A reanalysis of the South African australopithecine natural endocasts
Sulcal patterns of six previously available South African australopithecine natural endocasts are reexamined and compared to sulcal patterns of 17 human, 12 gorilla and six chimpanzee brains. In addition, a seventh natural endocast, from STS 58, is described for the first time and compared to an artificial endocast from the same specimen. Using the Taung endocast as a focal point, it is shown that sulcal patterns reproduced on natural endocasts o…
Hominid Paleoneurology
Infrastructures are material forms that allow for the possibility of exchange over space. They are the physical networks through which goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance are trafficked. In this article I trace the range of anthropological ...Read More
LB1's virtual endocast, microcephaly, and hominin brain evolution
Evolution of cranial blood drainage in hominids
Physiological studies of cranial blood flow in humans in reclining vs. upright postures suggest that selection for bipedalism was correlated with the establishment of epigenetic adaptations for delivering blood preferentially to the vertebral plexus of veins, depending upon momentary respiratory and postural constraints. The frequencies of vascular/osteological channels used to deliver blood to the vertebral plexus of veins were determined for sa…
Hominid brain evolution
The recent literature on hominid paleoneurology is reviewed and critically assessed. Two theoretical approaches for interpreting hominid paleoneurological data are discussed: (1) identifying cerebral “rubicons” that theoretically distinguish hominids from other primates and (2) analyzing brain evolution in terms of “residual” encephalization factors that remain after body size factors have been accounted for. Although these two approaches are sci…
Language, Handedness, and Primate Brains
Evidence from comparative primate neuroanatomy, archaeology, and studies of vocalization systems of nonhuman primates suggests that human vocal language has a long evolutionary history and that there is continuity between our early primate ancestors' call systems and human speech. Old World monkeys exhibit cerebral asymmetries similar to those that appear related to human language. If arboreal monkeylike ancestors of humans were also characterize…
Comparative anatomy of the larynx in man and the chimpanzee
Using the larynges of the newborn human and chimpanzee as models, Lieberman and Crelin ('71) and Lieberman, Crelin and Klatt ('72) have reconstructed the larynx of the “classic” Neanderthal La Chapelle aux Saints. The authors used their reconstructed vocal tract to generate linguistic functions which led them to conclude that Neanderthal lacked the ability to produce fully articulate human speech. In this paper, it is shown that their reconstruct…
Endocranial cast of HexianHomo erectus from South China
In this paper, we present data on the morphological features and linear measurements for the Hexian Homo erectus and other comparative endocasts, in order to highlight variation during human brain evolution. The endocast of Hexian was reconstructed in 1982, and an endocranial volume of 1,025 ml was estimated. The geological age is about 412 ka, or roughly contemporaneous with the Zhoukoudian (ZKD) specimens. There are some differences between Hex…
Meningeal arterial patterns in great apes
Arterial meningeal patterns were observed for 100 hemispheres from great ape endocasts ( Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla , and Pongo pygmaeus ). Eight patterns emerged based on the relative contributions to the walls and dura mater of the middle part of the braincase of meningeal arteries that stem from two sources. These arteries enter the braincase through either the orbit (delivering blood from the internal carotid artery) or th…
Brain lateralization in primates and its evolution in hominids
Recent studies suggest that vocal communication and visuospatial processing are lateralized to left and right hemispheres respectively in monkeys of the genus Macaca, as they are in humans. The fundamental neurological substrate that forms the basis for complex cerebral asymmetries in Homo sapiens may therefore have been established remarkably early in anthropoid evolution. The tendency toward cortical lateralization has been greatly elaborated i…
Brief communication
Earlier reconstructions of the Taung endocast, from the juvenile type specimen for Australopithecus africanus , were achieved without benefit of the advanced computer technology that is available today and before morphological differences were identified that distinguish endocasts of Paranthropus from those of A. africanus . Here, we reconstruct and measure a relatively complete virtual endocast of Taung and provide a new cranial capacity estimat…
The Taung endocast
Indices of rostrality (ir, ir') are developed to assess the extent to which the medial end of the lunate sulcus (L) is rostrally positioned in photographs and figures of lateral views of primate brains and endocasts, and indices are determined for chimpanzees, SK 1585 and the Taung endocast. Ir quantifies the extent of rostrality as it has traditionally been viewed (in A-P projections) while ir' takes dorsal curvature into account. The ir of the …
On Happiness
What do anthropologists have to say about happiness? For some contributors in this Vital Topics Forum, happiness is a sensory force that colors and shapes human evolution and experience. Others consider happiness, or the lack thereof, to be a faceted reflection of the arrangements in society. All recognize the potential power of human happiness, where a distant memory, fleeting experience, or idealized vision can serve as a driving force in trans…
The natural endocast of Taung ( Australopithecus africanus )
Dart's 1925 announcement of Australopithecus africanus (Dart: Nature 115 [1925] 195–199) was highly controversial, partly because of an interpretation of the Taung natural endocast that rested on an erroneous identification of the lambdoid suture as the lunate sulcus. Unpublished materials from the University of Witwatersrand Archives (Dart, unpublished material) reveal that Dart reacted to the controversy by: 1) describing and illustrating the e…
Did more than one species of hominid coexist before 3·0 Ma
Evidence for a dual pattern of cranial venous sinuses on the endocranial cast of taung ( Australopithecus africanus )
According to published accounts, an enlarged occipital‐marginal sinus system is absent in Australopithecus africanus , although it occurs in high frequencies in A. robustus, A. Boisei , and Hadar hominids commonly designated A. afarensis . In this report, we describe, for the first time, an enlarged occipital‐marginal sinus system on the endocranial cast of the Taung specimen, which is part of the holotype of A. africanus . In addition, well‐deve…
Brain evolution in old World monkeys
Sulcal patterns of 14 genera of Old World monkeys were analyzed from 107 endocasts. Colobines and cercopithecines differ in patterns of cerebral convolutions, and functional and evolutionary hypotheses are here proposed regarding those differences. The cercopithecine pattern seems to be the more derived since it suggests relative expansion of prefrontal, and inferior temporal integration cortices as compared to the colobine pattern
Efficacy of cranial versus dental measurements for separating human populations
Cranial and dental measurements were taken on 100 skulls, consisting of 20 specimens each, representing five different human populations. In addition to traditional cranial and dental measurements, sets of nonstandard basicranial and cervical dental measurements were collected. The data were subjected to univariate and multivariate analyses to determine what kinds of data best sort human populations. Both univariate and multivariate analyses indi…
Age‐ and sex‐associated variations in the directional asymmetry of rhesus macaque forelimb bones
Several investigators have questioned the significance of handedness as an explanation of directional forelimb asymmetries, yet little has been done to isolate other explanatory factors. In this investigation, we analyze 61 female and 76 male rhesus macaque skeletons for evidence of age‐and/or sex‐associated variations in ten forelimb bone measurements. All significant directional asymmetries are found to favor the right side. Although some of th…
Apples, oranges, and the lunate sulcus
Holloway (1984) used a method of direct tape‐arc measurements of chimpanzee brain casts to reject the hypothesis that the lunate sulcus is located in an anterior position in the Taung endocast. However, Holloway neglected to measure the occipital pole‐lunate sulcus (OP‐LS) arc directly on the Taung endocast as he did on chimpanzee brain casts (a crucial part of his methodology); instead, he determined the relative position of Taung's lunate sulcu…
Endocranial suture closure in rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta )
Endocasts from skulls of 330 rhesus monkeys ( Macaca mulatta ) of known age are scored for closure of nine bilateral and three unilateral sutures or segments of sutures. A variety of tests reveals a strong relationship between age and stages of suture closure, although increasingly broad confidence intervals prevent sutures from being very useful for precisely aging older macaques. The order in which endosutures begin to close, as well as that in…
Sapienization and Speech [and Comments and Reply]
Middle Pleistocene erectus skulls differ from ours in fifteen discrete traits, primary among which are their smaller cranial capacities, flatter and more strongly constructed braincases, larger and more anteriorly projecting faces, and inflected mastoid processes. Back to 40,000 years ago all fossil hominids are of the sapiens desing, while all those clearly older show the erectus pattern. Except for their large brains, Neandertals are of the ere…
Comparative anatomy of the larynx in man and the chimpanzee
Using the larynges of the newborn human and chimpanzee as models, Lieberman and Crelin ('71) and Lieberman, Crelin and Klatt ('72) have reconstructed the larynx of the “classic” Neanderthal La Chapelle aux Saints. The authors used their reconstructed vocal tract to generate linguistic functions which led them to conclude that Neanderthal lacked the ability to produce fully articulate human speech. In this paper, it is shown that their reconstruct…
Apes, Men, and Language. E. Linden . Baltimore
The stature and weight of Sterkfontein 14
present conclusion seems to be that 2,500,000 may be the best estimate for Sterk- fontein, although deposition may well have continued for 100,000 years or more
Dear
Brain evolution in old World monkeys
Sulcal patterns of 14 genera of Old World monkeys were analyzed from 107 endocasts. Colobines and cercopithecines differ in patterns of cerebral convolutions, and functional and evolutionary hypotheses are here proposed regarding those differences. The cercopithecine pattern seems to be the more derived since it suggests relative expansion of prefrontal, and inferior temporal integration cortices as compared to the colobine pattern
On a new australopithecine partial endocast
A newly discovered right parietal/temporal/frontal fragment from an australopithecine natural endocast is described and compared to other australopithecine endocasts. This specimen shows that the central sulcus was arched, rather than straight as previously believed, and reveals frontal lobe convolutions not preserved in other australopithecine endocasts
Cladistic analysis of New World monkey sulcal patterns
Hominid brain evolution
The recent literature on hominid paleoneurology is reviewed and critically assessed. Two theoretical approaches for interpreting hominid paleoneurological data are discussed: (1) identifying cerebral “rubicons” that theoretically distinguish hominids from other primates and (2) analyzing brain evolution in terms of “residual” encephalization factors that remain after body size factors have been accounted for. Although these two approaches are sci…
A reanalysis of the South African australopithecine natural endocasts
Sulcal patterns of six previously available South African australopithecine natural endocasts are reexamined and compared to sulcal patterns of 17 human, 12 gorilla and six chimpanzee brains. In addition, a seventh natural endocast, from STS 58, is described for the first time and compared to an artificial endocast from the same specimen. Using the Taung endocast as a focal point, it is shown that sulcal patterns reproduced on natural endocasts o…
Sapienization and Speech [and Comments and Reply]
Middle Pleistocene erectus skulls differ from ours in fifteen discrete traits, primary among which are their smaller cranial capacities, flatter and more strongly constructed braincases, larger and more anteriorly projecting faces, and inflected mastoid processes. Back to 40,000 years ago all fossil hominids are of the sapiens desing, while all those clearly older show the erectus pattern. Except for their large brains, Neandertals are of the ere…
Language, Handedness, and Primate Brains
Evidence from comparative primate neuroanatomy, archaeology, and studies of vocalization systems of nonhuman primates suggests that human vocal language has a long evolutionary history and that there is continuity between our early primate ancestors' call systems and human speech. Old World monkeys exhibit cerebral asymmetries similar to those that appear related to human language. If arboreal monkeylike ancestors of humans were also characterize…
Sulcal patterns of fossilTheropithecus baboons
Efficacy of cranial versus dental measurements for separating human populations
Cranial and dental measurements were taken on 100 skulls, consisting of 20 specimens each, representing five different human populations. In addition to traditional cranial and dental measurements, sets of nonstandard basicranial and cervical dental measurements were collected. The data were subjected to univariate and multivariate analyses to determine what kinds of data best sort human populations. Both univariate and multivariate analyses indi…
Physical Anthropology
The Taung endocast
Indices of rostrality (ir, ir') are developed to assess the extent to which the medial end of the lunate sulcus (L) is rostrally positioned in photographs and figures of lateral views of primate brains and endocasts, and indices are determined for chimpanzees, SK 1585 and the Taung endocast. Ir quantifies the extent of rostrality as it has traditionally been viewed (in A-P projections) while ir' takes dorsal curvature into account. The ir of the …
Cranial capacity of a female robust australopithecine (KNM-ER 407) from Kenya
Apples, oranges, and the lunate sulcus
Holloway (1984) used a method of direct tape‐arc measurements of chimpanzee brain casts to reject the hypothesis that the lunate sulcus is located in an anterior position in the Taung endocast. However, Holloway neglected to measure the occipital pole‐lunate sulcus (OP‐LS) arc directly on the Taung endocast as he did on chimpanzee brain casts (a crucial part of his methodology); instead, he determined the relative position of Taung's lunate sulcu…
Evolution of cranial blood drainage in hominids
Physiological studies of cranial blood flow in humans in reclining vs. upright postures suggest that selection for bipedalism was correlated with the establishment of epigenetic adaptations for delivering blood preferentially to the vertebral plexus of veins, depending upon momentary respiratory and postural constraints. The frequencies of vascular/osteological channels used to deliver blood to the vertebral plexus of veins were determined for sa…
Brain lateralization in primates and its evolution in hominids
Recent studies suggest that vocal communication and visuospatial processing are lateralized to left and right hemispheres respectively in monkeys of the genus Macaca, as they are in humans. The fundamental neurological substrate that forms the basis for complex cerebral asymmetries in Homo sapiens may therefore have been established remarkably early in anthropoid evolution. The tendency toward cortical lateralization has been greatly elaborated i…
Hominid Evolution
Hominid Paleoneurology
Infrastructures are material forms that allow for the possibility of exchange over space. They are the physical networks through which goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance are trafficked. In this article I trace the range of anthropological ...Read More
Directional asymmetry in the forelimb of Macaca mulatta
Asymmetry was investigated in the forelimbs of 150 rhesus monkey ( Macaca mulatta ) skeletons using measurements of right and left humerii, radii, ulnae, second metacarpals, and femora. Seven of the ten forelimb dimensions were larger on the right than on the left side. Paired t‐tests revealed that the mean of the right side was significantly larger than that for the left for two measurements of the ulna and two of the humerus. No measurement was…
Evidence for a dual pattern of cranial venous sinuses on the endocranial cast of taung ( Australopithecus africanus )
According to published accounts, an enlarged occipital‐marginal sinus system is absent in Australopithecus africanus , although it occurs in high frequencies in A. robustus, A. Boisei , and Hadar hominids commonly designated A. afarensis . In this report, we describe, for the first time, an enlarged occipital‐marginal sinus system on the endocranial cast of the Taung specimen, which is part of the holotype of A. africanus . In addition, well‐deve…
Ape‐like endocast of “ape‐man” Taung
I have identified and illustrated a spherical “dimple” or “depression” on the Taung endocast as indicating the most likely position of the medial end of the lunate sulcus but have not drawn an actual lunate sulcus on Taung because one is not visible. In a recent paper, R.L. Holloway ( Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 77 :27–33, 1988) drew a lunate sulcus on his copy of the Taung endocast, incorrectly attributed this sulcus to me, and used it to obtain a r…
Endocranial suture closure in rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta )
Endocasts from skulls of 330 rhesus monkeys ( Macaca mulatta ) of known age are scored for closure of nine bilateral and three unilateral sutures or segments of sutures. A variety of tests reveals a strong relationship between age and stages of suture closure, although increasingly broad confidence intervals prevent sutures from being very useful for precisely aging older macaques. The order in which endosutures begin to close, as well as that in…
Biology (49 works) · Primate Behavior and Ecology (31 works) · Anatomy (30 works) · Anatomy (30 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (29 works) · Endocast (23 works) · Skull (23 works) · Evolutionary biology (21 works) · Paleontology (19 works) · Paleontology (16 works)