530 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1961 



II have their greatest bucco-lingual diameter below the enamel and 

 it amounts to 9 mm. The figure is only a little less in the case of 

 Shanidarl (8.0-8.2 mm.). 



A selection of the radiographs made in 1957 are given in plate 9, 

 figure 2, a-d. These show moderately large pulp cavities in the only 

 slightly worn molars of Shanidar II and greatly reduced pulp cavities 

 in the much worn molars of Shanidar I. Neanderthals are no longer 

 regarded as being unusual in their tendency to taurodontism (large 

 pulp cavities). 



SKULL VAULT 



Eelative to size the skull vault yielded less information than the 

 lower jaw and face. This was to be expected, because so little of the 

 vault is characterized by surface relief. Fortunately, the one area 

 that does have surface relief, the occiput, is preserved in its right half. 

 The intact fragment (fig. 6) includes, among other things, half of the 

 lambdoid suture, the mastoid process, and half of the foramen mag- 

 num. Viewed from the outside, the moderately intricate pattern of 

 the lambdoid suture stands out boldly, showing no signs of closure; 

 but on the inside there is no such pattern, only a fissure, or more likely 

 a postmortem crack. I conclude, therefore, that endocranial suture 

 closure has taken place in this area. As so often is the case, the ex- 

 ternal part of this suture is made up of serrations of bone from the 

 occipital overlapping the parietal elements. It is noteworthy, also, 

 that the suture takes a fairly direct course from the midline to the 

 point of juncture with the temporal bone. This is very different from 

 the curving course of the suture in Shanidar I (fig. 6) and may denote 

 more dolichocrany. 



SHANIDAR II SHANIDAR I 



Figure 6. — Stereographic drawing of right occipitotemporal fragment of Shanidar II 

 compared with a stereographic drawing of the same area in Shanidar I. Both specimens 

 oriented with the sagittal axis of the foramen magnum horizontal. 



