Description of ancient UP crania by Carleton Coon:

“Since, as Morant has shown, this total Upper Palaeolithic group is unified enough to be considered a single population, we may proceed to generalize about the traits which most of the members of this group possess in common. The first and most notable of these is the extremely large size of the brain case, larger in most cases than Galley Hill or most modern men, and comparable in size to Skhul. This is found in all but a few of the skulls, whatever the actual dimensions and forms. The cranial indices, however, are very variable, ranging from sixty-five to eighty-five, and this variability is too great to imply a single homogeneous type.

In these skulls the males are easily distinguished from the females, for there is a greater difference between the sexes than is usual among more recent groups of man. The same is true of long bones and stature. This implies, of course, a stronger development of secondary sexual characteristics. In the male skulls the bony markings are all pronounced the browridges are as a rule heavy, the faces arc excessively broad, with flaring zygomata. The upper face height is variable—medium to short in most individuals, but in others quite long.

One of the most distinctive characteristics of most (but not all) of these skulls is that the orbits are very broad and very low. The nasal skeleton is almost always prominent. The nasal root, although deeply overhung by glabella, is still high, and the osseous nasal profile is as a rule straight or convex. The nasal spine is sharp and the lower border well marked. The nose, on the whole, is leptorrhine to mesorrhine.

The lower jaw presents just as marked an individuality as does the cranium. This bone is deep, wide, and heavy, with flaring gonial angles and a prominent chin. The palate is rather wider than those of most living men, although the teeth are not of excessive size. If one judges the face form from the calvarium alone, the great breadth of the face, coupled with a variable length, yields in most cases a low upper facial index, placing these skulls in the euryene category. If, however, one calculates a total facial index, many of these skulls are leptoprospic, for the great height of the mandibular symphysis compensates for the shortness from nasion to alveolar point. This condition, in which the lower part of the face is exaggerated, is one of the chief diagnostic features of this type of man, and a suggestion of it may still be seen among some of the living peoples of northern Europe.

In the totality of facial features, with a few exceptions, the Upper Palaeolithic people may be said to have resembled modern white men. (…) This comparison, we must remember, is wholly morphological, since we do not know Upper Palaeolithic man’s pigmentation, hair form, or hair distribution.”