Question

What did rosenberg and trevathan discover in their study comparing human and nonhuman primate birth?

Answer 1

Answer: Rosenberg and Trevathan discovered birth patterns in primates and non human primates. They compared the birth patterns of human, gorilla, gibbon, monkey to understand the similarity and differences among them.

In case of monkey and gibbon the dimension of the neonatal cranium have very minute difference to that of their mother's pelvis. When we talk about great apes like gorilla and pan the size of pelvis is large as compared to the cranium size of their neonates and the pelvic inlet is spacious. In terms of human being the cranium size of the neonates is longer than the anterior and posterior dimensions of the pelvic inlet which requires the head to pass through the inlet facing transversely.

Answer 2

When comparing the birth patterns of humans and non-human primate, Rosenberg and Trevathan discovered some very clear differences:

1. The human period of labour and child birth is exceptionally long and painful compared to other non-human primates.
E.g. a human labour can last anywhere from 10-20 hours while that of a chimpanzee lasts only 2 hours.

2. Humans have the ability to walk straight, the trade off however is that it is extremely difficult and painful to give birth to a big brained human baby.