Nature & Environment
Lemur Scents Reveal Whether Mom Will Have a Boy or Girl
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Feb 25, 2015 10:00 AM EST
Is it a boy or is it a girl? Humans use ultrasound to check whether a mom-to-be will have a boy or girl, but even ultrasound doesn't always get it right. With lemurs, though, it's easy; scientists have found that you can tell whether a pregnant mother will have a boy or a girl by her scent.
In order to learn a bit more about lemurs, the researchers used cotton swabs to collect the scent secretions from 12 female ringtailed lemurs before and during pregnancy. Normally, these animals produce a musky odor that scientists refer to jokingly as "eau de lemur," so researchers wanted to see whether this odor changed at all during pregnancy.
The distinctive scent is actually a complex cocktail of pheromones and other chemicals that scientists have found conveys information about an animal's sex, fertility and other qualities. In order to test how it changes, the researchers used chemical analysis by using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. This revealed that hundreds of ingredients make up each female's scent change during pregnancy.
The scientists found that lemur moms give off simpler scents that contain fewer odor compounds compared to their scents pre-pregnancy. This change is more pronounced when the moms are carrying boys.
"The difference in hormone profiles between pregnant lemurs carrying sons and those carrying daughters is dramatic," said Christine Drea, one of the researchers, in a news release.
Currently, the researchers aren't sure why pregnant lemurs produce simpler scents. However, they do have theories.
"It could be that producing these compounds uses resources that are directed elsewhere when they're pregnant, especially if it's more energetically costly for a female to have a male pregnancy than a female pregnancy," said Drea.
The findings are published in the journal Biology Letters.
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
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First Posted: Feb 25, 2015 10:00 AM EST
Is it a boy or is it a girl? Humans use ultrasound to check whether a mom-to-be will have a boy or girl, but even ultrasound doesn't always get it right. With lemurs, though, it's easy; scientists have found that you can tell whether a pregnant mother will have a boy or a girl by her scent.
In order to learn a bit more about lemurs, the researchers used cotton swabs to collect the scent secretions from 12 female ringtailed lemurs before and during pregnancy. Normally, these animals produce a musky odor that scientists refer to jokingly as "eau de lemur," so researchers wanted to see whether this odor changed at all during pregnancy.
The distinctive scent is actually a complex cocktail of pheromones and other chemicals that scientists have found conveys information about an animal's sex, fertility and other qualities. In order to test how it changes, the researchers used chemical analysis by using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. This revealed that hundreds of ingredients make up each female's scent change during pregnancy.
The scientists found that lemur moms give off simpler scents that contain fewer odor compounds compared to their scents pre-pregnancy. This change is more pronounced when the moms are carrying boys.
"The difference in hormone profiles between pregnant lemurs carrying sons and those carrying daughters is dramatic," said Christine Drea, one of the researchers, in a news release.
Currently, the researchers aren't sure why pregnant lemurs produce simpler scents. However, they do have theories.
"It could be that producing these compounds uses resources that are directed elsewhere when they're pregnant, especially if it's more energetically costly for a female to have a male pregnancy than a female pregnancy," said Drea.
The findings are published in the journal Biology Letters.
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone