The Sterkfontein crania. Four crania or endocasts from Sterkfontein 

 have permitted reasonable determinations or estimates of endocranial capac- 

 ity to be made. The most complete and perfectly preserved cranium was 

 that of Sterkfontein skull Sts 5 (Figure 2). Broom and Robinson (1950) 

 estimated its capacity as 482 c.c, and Schepers (1950) and Robinson (1954) 

 accepted the figure of 480.* The latter figure was used by me in several 

 tabulations (1963, 1967a, 1968b). f 



"Skull 8" from Sterkfontein comprises much of the top of the braincase 

 (Sts 58) and a well-preserved base (Sts 19). From these 2 parts, Broom and 

 Robinson (1948) reconstructed the whole endocast "with considerable con- 

 fidence," yielding a value of about 530 c.c. This figure I employed in my 

 tabulations (Tobias 1963, 1967a, 1968b). Schepers, however, cited values for 

 this specimen of 550 to 570 c.c. in his Table 1 (1950); he did not explain how 

 his reconstruction came to be so much larger in volume than that of Broom 

 and Robinson. If the value of 530 c.c. is correct, this would give Sterkfontein 

 8 the biggest capacity of the Sterkfontein australopithecines whose capacities 

 have so far been determined or estimated, and of all the gracile australo- 

 pithecines, save that the Taung "adult value" is 540 c.c.]; 



The capacity of the very complete Sterkfontein 1 endocast (the type 

 specimen of what was earlier called Plesianthropus), now catalogued as Sts 

 60, was estimated by Schepers (1946) as 435 c.c. and by Broom and Robinson 

 (1948) as about 450 c.c. Le Gros Clark (1947, 1964) considered Schepers' 

 estimate of 435 c.c. "reasonable" and "fairly reliable," and I have employed 

 this figure in my own tables.§ 



* Earlier, Broom and Robinson (1948) had spoken of the capacity of "the beautiful female 

 skull" (presumably the same Sts 5 cranium) as being about 415 c.c. Their upgrading of this 

 figure appeared in the 1950 monograph. 



f Holloway (1970b) has recently confirmed this volume, obtaining an estimate of 485 c.c. for the 

 capacity of the artificial endocast. 



I Holloway (1970b) has recently published a new estimate of 436 c.c, based on the partial endo- 

 cast of Sts 19, the base of this cranium. Broom and Robinson (1948) and Schepers (1950) used 

 both the base (Sts 19) and the calotte (Sts 58) to reconstruct an entire endocast for which they 

 obtained values of about 530 c.c. and 550 to 570 c.c, respectively. However, as Holloway (personal 

 communication) points out, in neither instance were the methods of reconstruction and of 

 volume determination well described by these earlier workers. Holloway (1970b and personal 

 communication) did not attempt a reconstruction based on both parts of this cranium (Sts 

 19 and Sts 58) but made separate estimates based, respectively, on each of the 2 parts. He considers 

 his estimates based on the calotte (Sts 58) to be most tentative and insecure, whereas he is more 

 confident about the value estimated from the endocast of the basis cranii (Sts 19), that is, 436 c.c. 

 It is this last figure alone that is quoted in his paper (Holloway 1970b). 



§ Holloway has recently confirmed this figure, with an estimate of 428 c.c. 

 * l6 



