Abstract
LEUTENEGGER1 has provided estimates of the foetal size at birth of two species of Australopithecus. Huggett and Widdas2 drew attention to the relationship between foetal age and weight in mammals, and we have been assessing both specific foetal growth rates and length of gestation (J. F. D. F. and A. St G. Huggett, unpublished data). It is quite clear that in the higher primates the foetal growth rate is 0.06. Using this and the estimates of foetal sizes at birth in the Huggett/Widdas formula2 we obtain gestation periods for A. africanus of 257 days and A. robustus 300 days.
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References
Leutenegger, W., Nature, 240, 568 (1973).
Huggert, A. St G., and Widdas, W. F., J. Physiol., 114, 306 (1952).
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FRAZER, J. Gestation Period for Australopithecus. Nature 242, 347 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/242347a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/242347a0
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Gestation Period and Birth Weight of Australopithecus
Nature (1973)
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