Leonardo Da Vinci - Anatomical Drawings - Media Mistake

The Idea of this thread is primarily to discuss the drawings and possibly to correct the assertion by the media that Leonardo made a mistake in his drawing of a gravid uterus. I would also like to hear any views on the possible condition that the only subject Leonardo was able to sketch most likely had.
I do not believe that after completing his works with such precision, he would then compromise his accuracy by inserting a bovine organ into the anatomy of the human reproductive system.

BBC news reported:

The problems with the image start lower down, however. Clinical anatomist Prof Abrahams says that the uterus is wrong. This image, he suggests, is reminiscent of what we see in animals such as cows.

LINK

A website devoted to the accomplishments of Da Vinci asserts that:

One of the most famous of Leonardo's anatomical drawings is that of an unborn baby in the womb, correctly attached by the umbilical cord. This drawing contains one obvious mistake in that the placenta is more appropriate for a cow than a woman.

LINK

The website contains articles about Da Vinci's life and works.

It is possible that the woman Da Vinci was sketching had a condition which is very, very rare:

Cotyledonary-like placenta associated with severe intrauterine growth restriction. There have been no previous reports of human placentas mimicking the cotyledonary placenta of ruminants. We report a case of cotyledonary-like placenta associated with severe intrauterine growth restriction. A woman pregnant for the first time was referred to our hospital at 27 weeks' gestation because of severe intrauterine growth restriction. Characteristics of the placenta in the patient were examined by ultrasonographical and histopathological techniques. ultrasonography revealed that a hypo-echoic area intermingled with small segmented tissues in the placenta. The hypo-echoic area changed in size and shape according to uterine contractions. At 31 weeks' gestation, a caesarean section was performed because of non-reassuring fetal status. A female baby weighing 814 g was delivered. The placenta, which weighed 260 g, contained several long stem villi running over a distance of 6 to 7 cm without branching into intermediate or terminal villi. Small villous tissues had developed only at the tips of these stem villi. The present case shows an extraordinarily abnormal development of the villous trees in the placenta, which may have caused fetal IUGR and non-reassuring fetal status.

LINK

The condition may have been more common in the past due to poor nutrition or similar. If it was the placenta and not the uterus, I do think this may be the answer.

I think you may want to join this thread (below) as it appears this topic is already being discussed;

Leonardo Da Vincis SECRET drawings revealed, PURE GENIUS

reply to post by Ericthenewbie


Thanks for that.

Oh heck! I did a search too!!! It was not on there! I could add this info to the existing thread if a mod wishes.

I just thought it was pretty rough that rather than do a little research to possibly explain the drawing being different, it was assumed Leo guessed or used info gained from other animals. I am certain that the research Leo did demonstrated the many differences between species. I do admit there are many similarities also though.

Any mods please advise?

reply to post by Threegirls


Or he didn't have a human fetus and placenta to work with so he made due with whatever materials he had available.

He knows the human body so he just took the animal whomb, tried to make it a bit smaller and draw the fetus inside.

The only thing about the fetus that looks off, Not that ive seen many pics, but the shoulders look way too developed to be that of a fetus, looks like shoulders of a 5 year old child.

Everything else is great. He was an amazing artist and much more than that.