One of the most common conversations when a baby is born is one that speaks of the very high level of dependence that human babies have compared to the offspring of other animal species.
They do not walk or are able to move on their own, so they totally depend on the care of other people. Many animals, however, walk as soon as they are born and therefore have greater autonomy.
Researchers from Lund and Kristianstad Universities in Sweden have studied the different levels of development of 24 species of mammals and have concluded, when talking about the human being, that our babies are not born at birth because their brain is not fully developed and is not able to send the necessary signals to the rest of the body for babies to walk. Another discovery (well, the above is not entirely a discovery, since it has been known for some time that the brain of the newborn is very immature) is that Neural mechanisms necessary for walking appear at a similar time during pregnancy In all mammals.
However, despite this similarity, the biomechanics of gait is different in some mammals and this makes the time when you start walking different.
The plantigrades, which are the animals that, like us, support the entire foot on the ground, start walking later than the animals that do not support the heel, such as dogs and cats. Apparently the walk of the plantigrades is more complex and precise of a greater cerebral development.
The lack of brain development is an important cause to explain why babies do not walk, however it cannot be said that it is a unique factor. Even if newborns had superior brain development, they would lack a musculoskeletal system ready to walk, so they would be in them.
