How come certain animals (horses, moose, cows) can walk as soon as they’re born and humans can’t?
In: Biology
The walking part has to do with the brain development. Many animals can’t walk at birth, but yes humans take almost a year to do it. But our brains are at the same point of development as other mammals.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091215160851.htm
Why our brains aren’t as developed at birth is unclear, the old idea that hip width and infant head size is not holding up to scrutiny of science. A chimps brain size at birth is 40% of adult size and humans it is 30%, but if ours was 40% of adult size that’s only 1-2 cm bigger. That is within the range of women’s hip width today. Also, the idea that wider hip width impedes walking isn’t accurate. When running and walking on a treadmill there was no correlation between hip width and walking ability. So we already are wide enough for a baby with a larger skull and we could be wider without it affecting walking. So, there is probably a different reason, a few have been purposed, but we’ll see if they hold up. Also, did you know humans pregnancy is longer than chimps, gorillas or orangutans!
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