Humans have the highest growth rate of all primate's, but how it came about has been a mystery for a long time. A paleoanthropologist at Western Washington University in the United States led a study on Leslea Hlusko. A key piece of the puzzle is the relative size of the fossils.
The study shows that the teeth can be used as a map to help untangle the effects of genetics and development.
Fossils of the primate group, which includes the Old World apes and monkeys, were studied by the team, which also included Andrew Weitz, of the Department of Environmental Sciences at WWU.
The results show that the hominids were different from all other apes because of their rapid growth rate.
There is a person named molars.
The variation in the proportions of the molars is related to the growth rate of the pregnant woman.
Many new questions have been raised by the discovery of the relationship between the proportions of the molars. Is this also found in other mammals?
I don't think our humanity can be reduced solely to the teeth, but I do think that part of it is recorded in our teeth. There is a window for studies of pregnant and expecting women. We can use dental material from ancient humans and other primate ancestors to find out what their pregnancies were like.
There is more information about the evolution of human-like pregnancies in later Homo.
Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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