Apert syndrome (AS) is a common genetic syndrome in humans characterized with craniosynostosis. Apert patients and mouse models showed abnormalities in sutures, cranial base and brain, that may all be involved in the pathogenesis of skull malformation of Apert syndrome. To distinguish the differential roles of these components of head in the pathogenesis of the abnormal skull morphology of AS, ...

Though reduction in the number of cranial elements through loss of a suture is a recognized trend in vertebrate evolution, the premature closure of cranial sutures in humans, craniosynostosis, is considered a pathological condition. Previous research on craniosynostosis has focused primarily on the skeletal phenotype, but the intimate relationship between the developing central nervous system (...

The unique set of morphological characteristics of the Liang Bua hominins (Homo floresiensis) has been attributed to explanations as diverse as insular dwarfism and pathological microcephaly. This study examined the relationship between cranial size and shape across a range of hominin and African ape species to test whether or not cranial morphology of LB1 is consistent with the basic pattern o...

Inter-population variation of cranial morphology, which plays an important role in human evolution studies and biological research, can be studied morphologically and metrically. Geometric morphometry compares body forms using specific landmarks determined by anatomical prominences. The aim of this study was to identify cranial shape differences between the crania of Byzantium period humans and...

Two mainland Japanese males were examined with a computer tomography (CT) X-ray scanner to reconstruct three-dimensional CT simulation images of their cranial anatomy and to check for the presence/absence of 23 nonmetric cranial traits. Surface anatomy for scoring 19 nonmetric cranial variations was clearly observed among the 23 variations. Evaluation of the four other traits might have been di...

Domestic animals are often described as paedomorphic, meaning that they retain juvenile characteristics into adulthood. Through a three-dimensional landmark-based geometric morphometric analysis of cranial morphology at three growth stages, we demonstrate that wild boar (n = 138) and domestic pigs (n = 106) (Sus scrofa) follow distinct ontogenetic trajectories. With the exception of the size ra...

INTRODUCTION: Congenital hydrocephalus, the most common cause of macrocephaly, is usually treated with ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunting. Despite shunting, changes to the overlying cranial bones cause calvarial expansion and distortion. Reduction cranioplasty can be performed to approach proper cranial size, shape, and cephalocranial proportion. However, consistent results are difficult to ach...