A study using CT scans of fetal skull and maternal pelvis covariation in pregnancies of 12 rhesus macaques finds that covariation occurs in such a way as to ease the passage of the fetal head through the birth canal; the results suggest that bipedalism, which was previously hypothesized to drive fetal skull and maternal pelvis covariation in humans, is not required to produce such covariation, according to the authors.
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Article #20-02112: "Covariation of fetal skull and maternal pelvis during the perinatal period in rhesus macaques and evolution of childbirth in primates," by Mikaze Kawada, Masato Nakatsukasa, Takeshi Nishimura, Akihisa Kaneko, and Naoki Morimoto.
MEDIA CONTACTS: Naoki Morimoto, Kyoto University, JAPAN; e-mail: morimoto@anthro.zool.kyoto-u.ac.jp ; Mikaze Kawada, Kyoto University, JAPAN; e-mail: kawada@anthro.zool.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences