Abstract
Human fetuses at term are large relative to the dimensions of the maternal birth canal, implying that their birth can be associated with difficulties. The tight passage through the human birth canal can lead to devastating outcomes if birth becomes obstructed, including maternal and fetal death. Although macaques have to accommodate similarly large fetuses, relative to their maternal birth canals, it was not known whether macaque mothers face birth difficulties similar to humans. Based on 27 y of demographic data from a semi-free-ranging, closely monitored population of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), we found no birth-associated mortality in macaques. This differs from the situation in many human populations. We suggest three nonmutually exclusive hypotheses to explain these observations. i) The macaque fetal skull is similarly flexible as the human fetal skull. ii) The macaque pelvis and connective tissue show greater flexibility during birth. iii) The interplay between macaque pelvic shape and birth dynamics is smoother and incurs fewer complications than in humans.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e2316189121 |
| Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
| Volume | 121 |
| Issue number | 42 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Oct 2024 |
Funding
We thank the Affenberg Landskron team, especially the managers of the Affenberg Zoobetriebsgesellschaft mbH, Svenja Gaubatz, Peter Gaubatz, and Markus Werdenig for sharing these valuable long-term data on the group with us. We thank Saskia Hin and Kai Willf\u00FChr for their valuable comments on the historical rate of maternal mortality. We also thank the \u201CPelvis and Evolution\u201D seminar series at Medical University of Vienna for enabling this collaboration. We sincerely appreciate the expertise and time that the editor and reviewers dedicated to improving our manuscript. This research was funded in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), grant V 826-B to B.F. For open access purposes, the authors have applied a CC BY public copyright license to any author-accepted manuscript version arising from this submission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank the Affenberg Landskron team, especially the managers of the Affenberg Zoobetriebsgesellschaft mbH, Svenja Gaubatz, Peter Gaubatz, and Markus Werdenig for sharing these valuable long-term data on the group with us. We thank Saskia Hin and Kai Willf\u00FChr for their valuable comments on the historical rate of maternal mortality. We also thank the \u201CPelvis and Evolution\u201D seminar series at Medical University of Vienna for enabling this collaboration.We sincerely appreciate the expertise and time that the editor and reviewers dedicated to improving our manuscript. This research was funded in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), grant V 826-B to B.F. For open access purposes, the authors have applied a CC BY public copyright license to any author-accepted manuscript version arising from this submission.
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 106012 Evolutionary research
- 106056 Biological anthropology
- 302017 Obstetrics
Keywords
- evolution of birth | feto-pelvic disproportion
- maternal mortality
- primates
