3B Scientific Orangutan Skull (Pongo pygmaeus), male - Manual (Page 3)

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Orang-Utan 1
Some dimensions of the original orang-utan skull 5 .
max. length of cranium (inc. occipital crest) 134 mm
max. breadth of cranium 131 mm
skull breadth in region of max. postorbital narrowing 65 mm
volume of cranial cavity = “brain size” 440 ccm
length of face 182 mm
breadth of upper face (external biorbital breadth) 107 mm
breadth of zygomatic arch 160 mm
max. separation of zygomatic arch from skull wall 45 mm
length of palate 94 mm
breadth of palate 41 mm
bicondylar breadth of mandible 100 mm
bigonial breadth of mandible 135 mm
height of corpus mandibulae 42 mm
ramus height of mandible 107 mm
ramus breadth 61 mm
total mass of skull 873 g
mass of cranium 551 g
mass of mandible 322 g
Author: Dr Dr Olav Röhrer-Ertl, Primates Section, SNSB, Munich
1 This model was cast from a replica of the original skull from the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History
Museum in Frankfurt/Main. For educational reasons the abraded teeth of the original were reconstructed following
younger male specimens in Munich, so as to be able to give a better representation of the tooth pattern. In this process,
some adaptations to the jaws had to be made.
2 The scientific name of the orang-utan has been under dispute for a good 40 years. This does not just concern the correct
attribution, as in the case of the chimpanzee, but also the specific name. Variant forms, known as synonyms, are found
in the literature.
3 Muscles cannot attach to one another, but require hard tissue for this purpose.
4 With increasing flattening of the tooth biting surfaces, the chewing force must be increased, which leads to increased
growth of the masticatory muscles, which in turn leads to more pronounced moulding of muscle attachment surfaces.
Here too, the distribution of the ever-increasing chewing force over the facial skeleton results in more pronounced
structures. Here we see the effect of the spatial relationship between the largest organ in the head, the brain, and the
others, particularly the eyes. In the African Ponginae this relationship is mainly horizontal (one behind the other),
whereas by contrast in the orang-utan they are arranged more vertically (one above the other).
5 All measurements were taken, from an original, by Dr sc. A. Windelband, Berlin. In general, model dimensions will vary
slightly from these.