Apples, oranges, and the lunate sulcus

Abstract Holloway (1984) used a method of direct tape‐arc measurements of chimpanzee brain casts to reject the hypothesis that the lunate sulcus is located in an anterior position in the Taung endocast. However, Holloway neglected to measure the occipital pole‐lunate sulcus (OP‐LS) arc directly on the Taung endocast as he did on chimpanzee brain casts (a crucial part of his methodology); instead, he determined the relative position of Taung's lunate sulcus on the basis of a calculation that confounds direct measurements and measurements from photographs. When arc OP‐LS is measured directly on Taung according to Holloway's methods, the feature that has been identified as the medial end of the lunate sulcus is shown to be located within the range that Holloway determined for chimpanzees. Thus Holloway's methodology and data support rather than refute the claim that the lunate sulcus is located in a pongid‐like position in australopithecines.