Birth defects are quite common around the
world, some more than others. Every once in a
while we see one that just catches our
attention and makes us think back to whether
or not we’ve seen it before. In this case, it
appears to be a rare deformity that caused a baby born with ears under its chin. The image,
taken from the popular photo site Imgur
shows a newborn baby who was born with a
few cranial birth defects, such as a deformed
mouth and jawline, but more prominently the
placement of the ears stands out. The placement of the ears in this case is
somewhat reminiscent of where gills would
be on an aquatic animal, or fish. Perhaps they
simply failed to migrate to the side of the
head after they were formed. In the first
trimester of pregnancy, the ears form along the jaw line out of cartilage. At some point
during the second trimester the ears typically
migrate to their correct place on the side of
the head. This is the normal process that
appears to have failed during the second
trimester, which resulted in the low placement of the ears as well as the deformed jaw line.
The Mayo Clinic states that by 18 weeks of
gestation, a fetus should be able to hear, as
well as have fully formed ears. In the case of the child in this picture, it is not
known if the child was born prematurely or if
it survived post-birth. Details about when and
where this child were born are still unclear, as
not much information appears to be public
aside from this picture.
No comments:
Post a Comment