Edmund Crelin, 81; Yale Professor Specialized in Anatomy of Newborns

Edmund Slocum Crelin Jr., 81, a professor of anatomy at Yale University perhaps best known for his writings on the anatomy of newborn infants, died Monday in Bradford, Conn. The cause of death was not disclosed by his family.

Crelin, who helped create the pioneering neonatal and ultrasound units at Yale-New Haven Hospital, wrote the first anatomical atlas of newborn infants in his book “Anatomy of the Newborn” (1969). That book and a related text, “Functional Anatomy of the Newborn” (1973), are considered primary reference works in the field.

Crelin also studied the human vocal tract to trace the origins of human speech. As part of his research, he made casts of human throats and duplicated vocal tracts to help him determine which early humans were capable of speech. In “The Human Vocal Tract: Anatomy, Function, Development and Evolution” (1987), he traced the origins of speech to at least 500,000 years ago.

Crelin, a native of Red Bank, N.J., served in the Navy during World War II. He graduated from Central College in Pella, Ind., and earned a doctorate from Yale in 1951. He then joined the faculty of the Yale School of Medicine. On retiring in 1991, he was named emeritus professor.