London, April 20 (ANI): The pattern of childbirth, long thought to be a unique feature to humans - the arrival of the baby facing backwards relative to its mother - has now been discovered in chimpanzees.
The feature, which was believed to be an important factor in the evolution of midwifery in humans, has raised a question. Unlike humans, who search for assistance when they go into labour, pregnant chimps seek solitude.
"It's clear from our observations that chimp babies are born facing backwards, but they give birth alone," the Nature quoted lead author Satoshi Hirata, a behavioural biologist at the Great Ape Research Institute of Hayashibara Biochemical Laboratories in Tamano, Japan, as saying.
"So the reverse orientation is clearly not a necessary condition for the evolution of midwifery," added Hirata.
Hirata thinks this is probably because the timing of birth is unpredictable, and because pregnant females do not like company when they give birth.
"They get very nervous," he added.
The discovery has been published in Biology Letters1. (ANI)
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