#561 Anna Warrener: The Evolution of the Human Pelvis, Bipedalism, and Childbirth
RECORDED ON AUGUST 31st 2021.
Dr. Anna Warrener is an assistant professor in the Anthropology department at University of Colorado Denver. Her research focuses on the evolution of the human musculoskeletal system using biomechanical techniques to assess how variation in physical structure affects locomotor performance. She is specifically interested in the human pelvis and how its unique anatomy impacts both locomotion and human birth. Dr. Warrener’s research has been published in PNAS, PLOS ONE, The Anatomical Record and other peer-reviewed journals and has also been featured in the BBC documentary “What Makes Us Human” and on NPR.
In this episode, we talk about human bipedalism, the human pelvis, and childbirth. We start by talking about the major steps we took to evolve our modern human anatomy, starting with our last common ancestor with chimps and bonobos. We discuss how our pelvis had to evolve for us to become bipedal. We go through the major hypothesis out there to explain the evolution of human bipedalism. We discuss the relationship between human life history, brain size, and the evolution of the female pelvis. We ask to what extent childbirth for human females is problematic from an evolutionary perspective. We talk about sex differences on the level of the pelvis. We also talk about human altriciality, and timing of birth.
Time Links:
Intro
Major anatomic transitions in our evolution
Bipedalism and the pelvis
The evolution of human bipedalism
Life history, brain evolution, and the female pelvis
Is childbirth evolutionarily problematic in the human species?
Sex differences in the pelvis, and where they come from
Human altriciality
Follow Dr. Warrener’s work!
Follow Dr. Warrener’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3tn1ney
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3jlPzGT