(anatomy) That part of the skull consisting of the bones enclosing the brain, but not including the bones of the face or jaw.
Used in a Sentence
crania
Definitions, parts of speech, synonyms, and sentence examples for crania.
Editorial note
Gould systematically selected data from Morton's tables that tended to inflate the measured volumes of Native American crania.
Examples12
Definitions3
Parts of speech1
Quick take
(anatomy) That part of the skull consisting of the bones enclosing the brain, but not including the bones of the face or jaw.
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of crania gathered in one view.
(informal) Synonym of skull.
(anthropology, informal) The upper portion of the skull, including the neurocranium and facial bones, but not including the jawbone (mandible).
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for crania.
noun
(anatomy) That part of the skull consisting of the bones enclosing the brain, but not including the bones of the face or jaw.
noun
(informal) Synonym of skull.
noun
(anthropology, informal) The upper portion of the skull, including the neurocranium and facial bones, but not including the jawbone (mandible).
Example sentences
Gould systematically selected data from Morton's tables that tended to inflate the measured volumes of Native American crania.
As our brains became more advanced, our crania became larger and more dangerous to birth at full term.
A future equivalent could be deforming our crania in the form of invasive BCI to aid in different things.
But our large crania are difficult to fit through the various choke points in the birth canal, and endanger the mother's life.
One argument I've seen frequently is that humans offset our smaller crania by losing the sloping foreheads of earlier hominids.
The result is basically gestation as long as possible and crania as large as possible to permit natural childbirth to usually be non-fatal -- but that inflection point is one where even a non-fatal childbirth is difficult and painful.
He did so by averaging some group means instead of overall means (although Lewis and colleagues show that Morton himself had used group means for many comparisons, contrary to Gould's claims), by excluding some small-skulled groups entirely (claiming sample size as a criterion), and by omitting crania that had not been measured in the earlier, seed-based analysis.
I will certainly grant that Economists and Business people need to have these ideas battered into their thick crania, however it's irritating to have the speaker present ideas as if they were novel which are not only not novel, but actually thousands of years old.
Quote examples
The abstract says “the Hirota people may have deformed their crania to… possibly aid in the long-distance trade of shellfish”.
The abstract also says “the Hirota people may have deformed their crania to preserve group identity”.
The paper reminds me of Victorian "research" showing that criminals have differently shaped crania from "normal" people.
The article does say that the secondary processing, inside the cave, was to remove the brain ("A second round of processing took place within the cave, perhaps related to accessing the brain and/or working the crania into the configuration in which they were found in Level 3.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use crania in a sentence?
Gould systematically selected data from Morton's tables that tended to inflate the measured volumes of Native American crania.
What does crania mean?
(anatomy) That part of the skull consisting of the bones enclosing the brain, but not including the bones of the face or jaw.
What part of speech is crania?
crania is commonly used as noun.