Boy Or Girl? UC Berkeley Researcher Finds Pregnant Lemurs Smell Differently Depending On Baby's Sex
BERKELEY (CBS SF) – Throughout the ages, many myths have claimed to predict if a mother-to-be is carrying a boy or girl.
A new study co-authored by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Duke University found pregnant lemurs emit different scents depending if they are pregnant with a male or female.
The study, by Jeremy Chase Crawford of UC Berkeley and Christine Drea of Duke, has been published in the journal Biology Letters. It claims to be the first evidence among any animal that a mother's scent is different depending on the sex of the baby she is carrying.
According to a statement from Duke University, Crawford and Drea used cotton swabs to collect scents from the genitals of ringtailed lemurs. Using chemical analysis, they found expectant lemurs gave off "simpler scents" when they were carrying boys compared to when they were carrying girls.
"The difference in hormone profiles between pregnant lemurs carrying sons and those carrying daughters is dramatic," Drea said.
Scientists have not determined why the scents differ so much among expectant lemurs or if similar traits have been found in humans or other animals.