Braincase With Natural Endocast of a Juvenile Rhinocerotinae From the Late Middle Pleistocene Site of Melpignano (Apulia, Southern Italy)

Abstract

Cranial remains of juvenile fossil rhinoceroses are rarely described in literature and very few is known about the ontogenetic development of their inner anatomy. In this study, we report the first CT based description of a juvenile braincase and its natural brain endocast of a late Middle Pleistocene Rhinocerotinae from Melpignano (Apulia, Italy). The specimen belongs to an individual about 12-18 months old, representing to date the youngest Pleistocene rhinoceros of Mediterranean Europe documented by neurocranial material. Through digital visualization methods the neurocranium has been restored and the anatomy of both the brain and the paranasal sinuses has been obtained and compared with those of juvenile and adult Pleistocene rhinoceroses. We evidence a different morphological development of the inner cranial anatomy in fossil and extant African species.

Morphology and postnatal ontogeny of the cranial endocast and paranasal sinuses of capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), the largest living rodent

“…Besides comparing semaphoronts of different taxa, the threedimensional reconstruction of the endocranial spaces of individuals of distinct ontogenetic stages can provide key information on the growth and ontogenetic variation in a non-invasive way (Dumont et al, 2020;Hoffmann et al, 2019;Hu et al, 2020;Hublin et al, 2015;Hurlburt et al, 2013;Iurino et al, 2020;Lautenschlager & Hübner, 2013;Macrini et al, 2007;Petroviĉ et al, 2018;Picasso et al, 2010). Therefore, the study of ontogenetic growth of cranial cavities is not only important for understanding species developmental patterns, but also for identifying age-related bias when applying these methodologies to fossil taxa.…”

The tale of a short-tailed cat: New outstanding Late Pleistocene fossils of Lynx pardinus from southern Italy

“…CT image processing was performed using Mimics 20.0, while the digital restoration process of the missing portions of the skulls was made with ZBrush 4R6. All the missing parts of the specimens were cloned and mirrored from those preserved, and their alignment and positioning were performed following the sagittal plane of the skull (Cherin et al, 2018;Iurino et al, 2020). Finally, the reconstructed portions were highlighted using different colors (Figs.…”