The longer we follow our primate cousins , the more we realize that all the thing that make us uniquely human are n’t quite as unique as we thought . The later uncovering bring out chimpanzees give giving birth in the most human path potential .
Specifically , chimpanzee babies go forth from the birth canal facing aside from the mother . In all other non - human high priest , the newborn infant face the female parent as they emerge . This positioning is much good for the baby , as it allows the mother to bring the kid closer and realize its breath passage . In humans , our oversized head signify that fetuses need to twist and turn just to make it out of the birth canal , lead to the strange giving birth view .
Researchers had assumed that only humans give birth like this , and that the practice evolve in our hominid ancestors as a mode of hook with our increased brain size . But now we may have to rethink that , thanks to the late study from the Hayashibara Great Ape Research Institute in Okayama , Japan . The scientist actually lived and slept with the chimps , just so they could get close enough to witness a giving birth springy and in soul .
They witnessed three birth , and all of them showed the chimp fetuses emerging face away from the mother . While the research worker readily acknowledge that these could just be extremely unusual elision to the general prescript , the law of similarity of the newborns ’ billet as they emerged suggested that this really is normal behavior for Pan troglodytes . research worker Satoshi Hirata explains :
“ Anthropologists have reason that the fact that human babies are born face aside from the mothers have go to [ the need for ] ‘ midwifery . ’ But our observation tells us that this is not honest . We run to imagine that we are unique , without knowing [ enough ] about other animals . ”
It ’s not straight off clear what this all means . There are two possibility : either chimps and man evolve this birthing practice separately – unlikely but not impossible – or it goes all the way back to our common evolutionary ascendant , who last several million years ago . Either way , we ’re increasingly die hard out of ways in which humans are unique .
Biology LettersviaBBC News .
BiologyBirthChimpanzeeEvolutionMonkey newsScience
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