Birth imperfections are quite general around the
world, some more than others. Every once in a while we see one that just
catches our awareness and makes you consider back to whether or not you had
seen it before. In this case, it appears to be a unusual deformity that caused
there to be a baby born with ears under its chin. The picture, taken
from the popular photo site Imgur explains
a newborn baby who was born with a few cranial birth faults, such as a deformed
mouth and jaw line, but more significantly the placement of the ears stands
out.
The position of the ears in this case is to some
extent reminiscent of where gills would be on an aquatic animal, or fish.
Perhaps they just failed to migrate to the side of the head after they were
formed. In the first trimester of the pregnancy, ears form along the jaw line
out of cartilage. At some point for the duration of the second trimester the
ears typically migrate to their correct place on the side of the head. This is
the usual procedure that appears to have failed during the second trimester,
which resulted in the low position of the ears as well as the deformed jaw
line. The Mayo Clinic states that by 18 weeks of gestation, a fetus ought to be able to hear, with
have completely formed ears.
In the case of the child in this photograph, it is not
known if the child was born prematurely (too early) or if it survived
post-birth. Details about when and where this child was born are still uncertain,
as not much information appears to be public aside from this photograph.
