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AAT Questions...
Sir CPU (sircpu@aol.com)
7 Aug 1995 16:54:21 -0400
Jim more writes:
- 7. Humans have young that are born less developed than our relatives,
- and they develop more slowly as well. Aquatic mammals have young
- that are quite advanced compared to similar terrestrial mammals (for
- example, seals as opposed to land-based carnivores), or which grow
- very quickly, or both. Why did the purported aquatic hominids
- change in the opposite direction from other aquatic mammals?
Jim.. Humans have children that are less developed than our relatives
because our brains are so much bigger than our closest relatives. Part of
the reason children are born "early" compared to other creatures is that
if our heads were very much larger then women whould experience
an extreme amount of physical stress during child birth, even more so
than is experienced now. This is why the head of the human infant is
"soft" and contains a partial "soft spot" in the skull so that it is
better able to slip down the birth cannal. In fact, the human brain will
probably not
get much larger or women will not be able to walk normally.
Troy Kelley
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