Neanderthal cranial ontogeny and its implications for late hominid diversity

Abstract

Ponce de Leon and Zollikofer dicusses neanderthal cranial ontogeny and its implications for late hominid diversity. They use computer fossil reconstruction and geometric morphometrics to show that characteristic differences in cranial and mandibular shape between Neanderthals and modern humans arose very early during development, possibly prenatally, and were maintained throughout postnasal ontogeny.