Nature has been kinder to the females so far as beauty is concerned,
for they have less marked crests of hair, smaller brows, and shorter
side teeth, and therefore more amiable faces under all circumstances.
Of course the outside appearance of the head has much to do with the
skull beneath, and this has been very carefully studied by anatomists.
As a whole, the skull of a full-grown male Gorilla is larger than that
of a man, but it is lighter, although it appears to be more massive
on account of its being marked by great bony ridges or crests, which
correspond with the lines of hair on the top and back of the head, one
being on the top like the crest of a helmet, and the other crossing
the back and reaching the other so as to form a rude +T+ shape.
Careful measurement proves the great size of the Gorilla’s skull as
a whole, and that this is dependent mainly on the dimensions of the
bones of the face, the cavity for the brain being smaller than that of
man. But it does not appear at first very easy to explain how it is
that this massive-looking skull should be lighter than that of man. A
careful examination of the bones of the Gorilla’s skull explains the
difficulty, and in a very interesting manner.
[Illustration: SIDE VIEW OF THE SKULL OF GORILLA.]
The massive and solid look is given to it by the crests or ridges
beneath the hair already mentioned; they are of great use, for they
give attachment to very powerful muscles, especially to those which
move the lower jaw, and enable the teeth to bite forcibly. The surface
of the bones of the head for a certain depth is solid enough, but
below this solid layer there is a cellular arrangement consisting of a
network of bone, with cavities communicating with each other with the
internal parts of the ears and nose. Below this is solid bone again. So
that there are three layers, and the central one gives lightness and
strength to the whole; moreover, it protects the brain under the skull
from receiving shocks during falls or blows by boughs.
When the skull receives a sharp blow, for instance, in front or behind,
or low down at the sides, the outer layer of solid bone is often
cracked, and even forced in. If there were no cellular layer, the
tender brain would be injured directly, but the network of bone and the
large spaces amongst it take off the jar from that important organ, and
suffer the outer layer to be pressed in without affecting the deeper
structures. It must be a very hard blow that can press the cellular
layer in sufficiently to break through the third layer, which is solid
but thin. Very possibly the larger air spaces of the cellular layer
assist the senses of hearing and of smelling also.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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