Metabolic hypothesis for human altriciality
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23328892 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Holly M Dunsworth (0000-0002-6685-213X, University of Rhode Island), A Warrener (0000-0002-7916-3456, Harvard University), Anna G Warrener (Harvard University), Terrence W Deacon (0000-0002-8672-5461, University of California, Berkeley), Terrence Deacon (Anthropology Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; and), Peter M Elias (0000-0002-0069-9064, Harvard University), Peter T Ellison (Harvard University), H Pontzer (0000-0003-2397-6543, Hunter College) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 109 |
| Issue | 38 |
| Pages | 15212-15216 |
| Publication date | 2012-09-18 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0027-8424 • E-ISSN: 1091-6490 |
| Publisher | National Academy of Sciences (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1073/pnas.1205282109 |
| PMID | 22932870 |
| PMCID | PMC3458333 |
| OpenAlex | W2146326139 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 86 |
| References cited | 39 |
The classic anthropological hypothesis known as the “obstetrical dilemma” is a well-known explanation for human altriciality, a condition that has significant implications for human social and behavioral evolution. The hypothesis holds that antagonistic selection for a large neonatal brain and a narrow, bipedal-adapted birth canal poses a problem for childbirth; the hominin “solution” is to truncate gestation, resulting in an altricial neonate. This explanation for human altriciality based on pelvic constraints persists despite data linking human life history to that of other species. Here, we present evidence that challenges the importance of pelvic morphology and mechanics in the evolution of human gestation and altriciality. Instead, our analyses suggest that limits to maternal metabolism are the primary constraints on human gestation length and fetal growth. Although pelvic remodeling and encephalization during hominin evolution contributed to the present parturitional difficulty, there is little evidence that pelvic constraints have altered the timing of birth.
Altricial · Biology · Brain size · Encephalization · Evolution of mammals · Evolutionary biology · Gestation · Human evolution · Human species · Pregnancy · Zoology · Birth, Development, and Health · Medicine · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior · Urological Disorders and Treatments
Being Born
Conflict, Constraint, Cooperation, and Allocation
Organ Size and Metabolic Rate Co‐Vary with Dimensions of the Obstetric Pelvis
Is birth attendance a uniquely human feature? New evidence suggests that Bonobo females protect and support the parturient
Energy Expenditure in Humans and Other Primates
The Evolutionary Biology of the Human Pelvis
Brain at Birth
Human Brain Evolution
Preterm Birth
Evolutionary Demography
Implications for Pregnancy
Adaptation for Single Births
Childbirth and Brain Size, Evolutionary Constraints of
Cooperative Child Rearing
Zooming out the microscope on cumulative cultural evolution
From hunters to grandmothers
Where are the birthing women? Rethinking agency, culture, and explanation in evolutionary psychology
Forms, Patterns, and Predictors of Body Contact Between Mothers and Infants in Ngogo Chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii )
What a Difference a Couple Hundred Million Years Can Make
Discernment of mortality risk associated with childbirth in archaeologically derived forager skeletons
Humans as inverted bats
Evaluation of dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry compared to magnetic resonance imaging for collecting measurements of the human bony pelvis
Skeletal variability in the pelvis and limb skeleton of humans
Moving Beyond the Obstetrical Dilemma Hypothesis
Care of Infants in the Past
Women carry for less
Language Genesis
Origin of Human Language in an Evolutionary Context
More Than Childbirth
Biocultural perspectives on maternal mortality and obstetrical death from the past to the present
Love Is the Cause of Human Evolution
Testing the Energetics of Gestation and Growth Hypothesis for Human Secondary Altriciality
Similarities in pelvic dimorphisms across populations
Obstetric dimensions of the female pelvis are less integrated than locomotor dimensions and show protective scaling patterns
Recent Research on the Human Biology of Pastoralists
Maternal physical, socioeconomic, and demographic characteristics and childbirth complications in rural lowland Nepal
Biologically normal sleep in the mother‐infant dyad
Minimal energetic expenditure of women walking burdened on gradients in urban environments
Reintegrating modern birth practice within ancient birth process
Patterns of directional asymmetry in the pelvis and pelvic canal
Pelvic and neonatal size correlations in light of evolutionary hypotheses
Geç Pleistosen’de çocuk bakımına arkeolojik yaklaşımlar
Maternal weight affects placental DNA methylation of genes involved in metabolic pathways in the common marmoset monkey ( Callithrix jacchus )
The life history of “Ardipithecus ramidus”
Expanding the evolutionary explanations for sex differences in the human skeleton
Synergies between the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease framework and multiple branches of evolutionary anthropology
The multifactor pelvis
From rainforests to savannas and back
Prácticas de crianza desde la perspectiva bioarqueológica
A geometric morphometric assessment of shape variation in adult pelvic morphology
Shape variation in the human pelvis and limb skeleton
Sexual dimorphism in the size and shape of the non‐obstetric pelvis across anthropoids
Bony pelvic canal size and shape in relation to body proportionality in humans
Variation in obstetric dimensions of the human bony pelvis in relation to age‐at‐death and latitude
Life History theory hypotheses on child growth
Energetic cost of walking in fossil hominins
Basis for the gain and subsequent dilution of epidermal pigmentation during human evolution
The torso integration hypothesis revisited in Homo sapiens
Adverse childhood experiences and reproductive strategies in a contemporary U.S. population
Sexual dimorphism of the relationship between the gut and pelvis in humans
Human athletic paleobiology; using sport as a model to investigate human evolutionary adaptation
Sexual dimorphism in relative sacral breadth among catarrhine primates
Evaluation of the auricular surface method for non‐adult sex estimation on the Lisbon documented collection
Comparative primate obstetrics
Selective pressures in the human bony pelvis
Assessing thoraco‐pelvic covariation in Homo sapiens and Pan troglodytes
Variability and the form–function framework in evolutionary biomechanics and human locomotion
Do rates of dental wear in extant African great apes inform the time of weaning
Ilium morphological variation during growth in forager populations
Human Energy Expenditure in Anthropology and Beyond
Archaeological Demography as a Tool for the Study of Women and Gender in the Past
Neandertal growth
The interaction of neutral evolutionary processes with climatically-driven adaptive changes in the 3D shape of the human os coxae
Virtual reconstruction of the Australopithecus africanus pelvis Sts 65 with implications for obstetrics and locomotion
A neonatal perspective on Homo erectus brain growth
The Omo-Kibish I pelvis
Did population differences in human pelvic form evolve by drift or selection
The Evolution of Human Infancy
Why Do Humans Hunt Cooperatively
Woman the hunter
Cooperative Breeding as a Likely Early Catalyst of Human Evolution
Brain Plasticity and Human Evolution
The Evolution of Difficult Childbirth and Helpless Hominin Infants
Comparative Reproductive Energetics of Human and Nonhuman Primates
A Shifting Theoretical Framework for Biological Anthropology in 2012
Allomaternal Nursing in Humans
Sexual dimorphism in the human pelvis
Biomechanics and Motor Control of Human Movement
Life History Variation in Primates
Relative brain size and basal metabolic rate in terrestrial vertebrates
A Partial Pelvis of Australopithecus sediba
Tools and Human Evolution
Birth, obstetrics and human evolution
Life History Variation in Primates
The Origin of Man
A shift toward birthing relatively large infants early in human evolution
A Female Homo erectus Pelvis from Gona, Ethiopia
The Origin and Diversification of Language
Encephalization and Obstetrics in Primates with Particular Reference to Human Evolution
Comparative and evolutionary dimensions of the energetics of human pregnancy and lactation
Bipedalism and human birth
Energy requirements during pregnancy and lactation
The Evolution of Human Brain Development
Natural selection and developmental sexual variation in the human pelvis
Sex differences in the pelves of primates
The evolution of modern human childbirth
The relationship between brain weight and head circumference from birth to age 18 years
Chimpanzee neonatal brain size
On Fertile Ground
Are Females the Ecological Sex
Hadza Women's Time Allocation, Offspring Provisioning, and the Evolution of Long Postmenopausal Life Spans
| Unique citing works | 86 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6,62 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2026 (14) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 81 |