How do scientists know a skull belongs to a certain ape if like humans, monkeys can have different head shapes

Question

The skeletons we see in text books and in the museums all seem to have the same head shape...but blacks, whites, and asians all have different head shapes...(longer, rounder, etc...)how do scientists know if the skull they are looking at then is human...and how do they know that a skill belonged to a Neanderthal since they probably could of had different head shapes as well?

and from what race does that model skeleton we see come from (taking into account it's skull shape)?

Answer 1

Because there are certain limits in variation. Looking at the skulls of apes and monkeys today gives us a good vantage point on how different two skulls will be within a single species. For example humans have different skull shapes, partly tied to race but you'd never find a skull in a healthy human that could be mistaken for a gorilla or baboon by any competent biologist.

Also, skulls aren't the only thing left over when an ape dies. Pelvises are an even better clue to how upright the stance of a creature was.

There will always be a few specimens that are questionable due to rarity or incompleteness but that just encourages more thorough research and more clever solutions. One scientist can figure something out, two working together is better but two scientists with opposing viewpoints will really figure out what's what.

Answer 2

I don't believe that it is possible to tell the 'race' of a person by their skull shape. There is so much variation within each so-called 'race' that it is not possible to tell someone's ethnicity by skull shape. However, the Neanderthal skull is very different from the modern human skull.

Answer 3

well im pretty sure that from a skull you could see the genetics, and in the genetics it would 'say' to them whether or not that certain specie was human or not.
you can usually tell by looking at a skull tho, without checking the genetics if it was an advanced species or not. For humans, the skull would be smoother, and for animals, it would be rougher.

Answer 4

Not different, but varying from a mean of skull shape.

Every population of variants " forces " it's own mean. Check out statistical analysis.

Answer 5

There may be small variations in shape, but the physiognomic differences between species is more pronounced, and easilly recognised by experts. In the same way they can tell if a human skeleton is male, female, adult, or child.