An enlarged parietal foramen in the late archaic Xujiayao 11 neurocranium from Northern China, and rare anomalies among Pleistocene Homo - PubMed (original) (raw)

An enlarged parietal foramen in the late archaic Xujiayao 11 neurocranium from Northern China, and rare anomalies among Pleistocene Homo

Xiu-Jie Wu et al. PLoS One. 2013.

Abstract

We report here a neurocranial abnormality previously undescribed in Pleistocene human fossils, an enlarged parietal foramen (EPF) in the early Late Pleistocene Xujiayao 11 parietal bones from the Xujiayao (Houjiayao) site, northern China. Xujiayao 11 is a pair of partial posteromedial parietal bones from an adult. It exhibits thick cranial vault bones, arachnoid granulations, a deviated posterior sagittal suture, and a unilateral (right) parietal lacuna with a posteriorly-directed and enlarged endocranial vascular sulcus. Differential diagnosis indicates that the perforation is a congenital defect, an enlarged parietal foramen, commonly associated with cerebral venous and cranial vault anomalies. It was not lethal given the individual's age-at-death, but it may have been associated with secondary neurological deficiencies. The fossil constitutes the oldest evidence in human evolution of this very rare condition (a single enlarged parietal foramen). In combination with developmental and degenerative abnormalities in other Pleistocene human remains, it suggests demographic and survival patterns among Pleistocene Homo that led to an elevated frequency of conditions unknown or rare among recent humans.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1. The Xujiayao 11 parietal bones. Exterior view (A).

CT horizontal section images showing the linear sagittal suture (B), the posterior left postmortem breaks (C), and the posterior right oblique sagittal suture (D). Anterior is above.

Figure 2

Figure 2. The Xujiayao 11 parietal bones. Interior view (A).

CT sagittal section image showing the thickness of the bone (B). CT coronal section images (C, D, E) showing the large Pacchionion depression (a), the two small granular foveolae (b, c) and the wide venous sulcus (d) in the bone. Anterior is above.

Figure 3

Figure 3. The right parietal perforation of Xujiayao 11.

Exocranial (A) and endocranial (B) details of the opening. The bone is oriented with the opening approximately horizontal, such that anterior is above-left in the exocranial view and above-right in the endocranial view. The rounded and beveled edge is evident in the external table (C). The vascular groove is evident on the inner table (D). The arrows delimit the preserved right rounded margins of the hole, to distinguish it from the left postmortem breakage of the margins.

Figure 4

Figure 4. CT reconstruction of the Xujiyao 11 parietal bones with sequential coronal slices through the perforation.

The slices extend from the anterior edge of the opening (A) to close to the posterior margin (E). A 3D CT reconstruction of the specimen is shown in external (F) and internal (G) views, with the postmortem breakage filled in and the sagittal suture line provided.

Figure 5

Figure 5. The Xujiayao 11 posteromedial parietal lacuna, with SEM details of the margins.

Exocranial (A) and endocranial (D) views of the opening with details of the anterolateral corner (B), the posterolateral sutural margin (C), and the posterolateral endocranial sulcus margin (E). Scale bars are 1 mm for B and 2 mm for C and E.

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This work has been supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZZD-EW-03, XDA05130100) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41272034). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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