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Human babies are born knowing how to swim, I suppose they learn that in 3 seconds as well? Both of these are far more likely to just be genetic memory. If you can encode how to fold proteins to make wings, then packaging a control algorithm along is completely trivial in comparison.


It's a false believe. Throw a baby in water and he won't survive.


Are you not aware of the throwing babies in pools fad that comes and goes in popularity? They do better than you'd think.


The swimming isn’t what you think. It’s also called the diving reflex for good reason: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_swimming#/media/File:Ba...

As a baby I fell into a pool and needed to be rescued. I didn’t inhale water, but as generally happens I very much did just sank to the bottom. Babies can be taught to float at around 5 months, but it’s not reflexive.


Infants do have a "diving reflex" but that is very different from knowing how to swim. If you throw a baby in a pool, the baby will drown and die.

There are undoubtedly similar reflexes that assist fulmars in learning to fly quickly, but that doesn't mean that rapid learning isn't also required.


On a very special episode of MythBusters…


I mean they kind of have to when they're part of a species that's curious enough that they'll hear 'babies can swim' and throw babies in a pool en masse to see if it is be true.


I'll test that out and get back to you /s

I can't say what the extent of those swimming reflexes really is, but water births are not unheard of. Besides there's literally countless examples of this sort of thing, most prey animals can walk or even run mere moments after being born, cetaceans and ram ventilator sharks all know how to swim immediately or they would literally drown, insects can fly as soon as they hatch, etc.


All good examples, but humans are relatively underdeveloped at birth compared to most mammals due to the necessity of limiting skull size to allow an easier birth. An infant cannot lift its own head or locomote for several months, for instance. Just like marsupials finish up outside the womb in a pouch, we have own external phase.




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