Evolution and humans: Neanderthal birth canal differs (Evolution)

by David Turell , Tuesday, January 19, 2021, 18:57 (1402 days ago) @ David Turell

Canal not the same it seems:

https://aeon.co/essays/what-do-we-know-about-the-lives-of-neanderthal-women?utm_source=...

"If Neanderthal women stroked and cradled their bumps, they certainly experienced the kicks and weird undulations of squirming infants within.

"What might giving birth have been like? While experiences today vary dramatically, birthing can be life-defining: physically draining and emotionally tumultuous. Anatomically however, reconstructing this for Neanderthal women has been tricky. One of the very few mostly complete female skeletons emerged from Mount Carmel in then-Palestine in 1932, at the opposite end of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar. Known as Tabūn 1, her hip bones are partially preserved, and 21st-century modelling suggests that her and her contemporaries’ birth canals were shaped differently. Babies didn’t need to twist, and heads emerged sideways instead of facing backwards. On the other hand, while this potentially meant that births could have been somewhat faster, with less risk of infants getting stuck, the babies’ longer skulls meant it was still a tight squeeze.

Comment: if true why did our birth canal get so difficult in birthing? Their brains actually were bigger in size. But it appears our brains were more intelligent. There must be reason we do not yet know.