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Dr. Universe: Why Are Human Babies So Helpless Compared To Other Mammals? \u2014 Ruby, 10, Florida<\/p>\nDr. Universe: Why Are Human Babies So Helpless Compared To Other Mammals? \u2014 Ruby, 10, Florida<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dear Ruby,<\/p>\n
As a kitten, I needed my mom for a long time. She fed me and kept me safe\u2014for 12 whole weeks. That\u2019s nothing compared to my human friends. Where I live, human parents provide for their kids into their 20s.<\/p>\n
I asked my friend Courtney Meehan why humans grow up so slowly. She\u2019s an anthropologist at Washington State University. She studies child development and parenting all over the world. It turns out human babies are born helpless because of how human bodies and societies evolved.<\/p>\n
It started with two adaptations: walking upright and big brains.<\/p>\n
Human ancestors climbed lots of trees. They walked on all fours. Then some of them began walking upright. That helped humans reach food and carry it. It made it easier to scan for predators. It saved energy and kept them cooler. Eventually, early humans became the walking, tool-using people you probably imagine. They tried new foods and started cooking over a fire. That made food easier to chew and digest. So, the human jaw and digestive system adjusted. Changes to our diet help support our bigger brains. But walking upright reshaped the pelvis. That made it super hard to birth big-headed babies.<\/p>\n
Humans adapted by giving birth earlier, when the baby\u2019s head is smaller. That means newborn babies are smaller and extra helpless. They\u2019ll grow a lot as babies. By the first birthday, a baby\u2019s brain doubles in size\u2014and the head grows about five inches. Big brains help humans live in super complicated groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis trade-off happens,\u201d Meehan said. \u201cWe give birth to more highly dependent offspring, and it takes us a long time to rear them to independence. But the benefit of that is our large, complex brains are really attuned to social interactions and language.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many animals rely on the instincts they\u2019re born with. Baby spiders just know how to spin a web. Kittens and cougar cubs automatically climb up to avoid danger. But little humans need to learn most things. They learn to talk. They figure out how to tell who\u2019s in their group. They learn how to behave around other people. That\u2019s important because humans live in fission-fusion societies. Their groups change a lot. Some early humans went off to hunt or forage. Then they came back together again. Today, many families go to school or work. Then they come back together. Sometimes human groups stay apart for a long time\u2014like over the summer or even for years. Human brains keep track of who\u2019s important and how to interact with them\u2014even if it\u2019s been a while.<\/p>\n
Meehan told me that there\u2019s one strategy humans use that other great apes don\u2019t. They sometimes have children with small age gaps\u2014so they still require a lot of care. Other great ape juveniles are more independent before their mother has another baby. \u201cTo support that, we help each other with child-rearing,\u201d Meehan said. \u201cAmong other primates like chimpanzees, you don\u2019t often see moms sharing their infants very widely.\u201d<\/p>\n
That task sharing is called alloparenting. Alloparents can be family members, friends or teachers. They all work together to raise the kids. How much that happens varies a lot. Parenting looks different for different humans adapting to where they live\u2014and helping their young succeed.<\/p>\n
That kind of variability makes humans stronger. For nature, it\u2019s a big-brainer.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Dr. Universe<\/p>\n
Ask Dr. Universe is a science-education project from Washington State University. Visit AskDrUniverse.wsu.edu to read more Q&A\u2019s, or to send in a science question of your own \u2013 or that of a kid you know \u2013 for a chance to be featured in a future Q&A. Or you can write to: Ask Dr. Universe Washington State University ITB 2013B Pullman, WA 99164<\/p>\n
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This is a model of a newborn baby\u2019s skull. It\u2019s made of seven bone pieces connected by joints called sutures. That allows the skull to flex a little bit during birth. The open spaces between bones are fontanelles, or soft spots. They\u2019re protected by tough tissue\u2014but babies need extra gentle care while they\u2019re open. The fontanelles usually close by the baby\u2019s second birthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Universe: Why Are Human Babies So Helpless Compared To Other Mammals? \u2014 Ruby, 10, Florida \u00a0 Dear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-270500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}