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The other kinda dumb constraint is that our heads are roughly as large as they can be and still survive vaginal delivery.
by bpodgursky 4y ago
The other kinda dumb constraint is that our heads are roughly as large as they can be and still survive vaginal delivery.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- monocasa 4y agoEvolution got around that by birthing what are essentially still fetuses compared to most other non-marsupial mammalian newborns and then continuing the base development process of the brain after birth. See how a lot of other newborn animals are already walking around just minutes after being born.
- harperlee 4y agoEyeballing based on my children development against other mammals, I’d say pregnancy should take about 2 years.
- mrguyorama 4y agoA lot of animals come out walking! Imagine squeezing out a 30 something pound walking toddler!
- MarkSweep 4y agoCaesarean-section removed this constraint. Since it was introduced, the number of births requiring a C-section due to size have increased: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38210837 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38210837
- uoaei 4y ago> number of births requiring a C-section Slippery metric. "Requiring" seems hard to isolate vs other options like "elected to use".
- ColanR 4y agoYeah. If there's an evolutionary aspect to the increase, we should expect to see c-sections as a generational phenomena, and correlated with cranium size. I wonder if that study has been done.
- Normille 4y ago>... other options like "elected to use"... Supposedly more common as a choice amongst higher income women. Hence the phrase "Too posh to push"
- benj111 4y agois it dumb? I admittedly havent spent much time thinking about the problem, but it seems to me that the issue of getting one human out of another human is quite a difficult problem to solve.