Birth of Maria's child in Shinsekai Yori After having watched Shinsekai Yori, something is still bugging me.

From what I understood, the council received Maria and Mamoru's bones from Squealer/Yakomaru after they had gone alone in the wilds, behind the Holy Barrier.
To me, that would mean that the bones were received only a short time after they escaped.

If they were really dead at that time (the Council says that the bones were DNA checked), then when did they have their child? Did I miss/misunderstand something?
After Maria and Mamoru escapes from Kamisu 66th district, the story undergoes a time skip 12 years ahead, where Saki and Satoru are 26 years old1.

As we all know, in episode 18, Asahina Tomiko, the head of Ethics Committee, reaffirmed the death of Maria and Mamoru. After they received the bones from Yakomaru/Squealer, they have checked that the bones are from human and there are no inconsistencies in age and gender. They even further confirmed by doing DNA tests and matching the dental record from Harmony School. Therefore, at the point when Saki and Satoru are 26 years old, both Maria and Mamoru have deceased.

However, it was not mentioned when they received the bones in the anime (or maybe I have missed it).

I only found reference in the manga2 (volume 4 chapter 13), where it was mentioned that the bones are recovered 2-3 year after their disappearance.



Therefore, it is safe to conclude that during the period of 2-3 years, Maria and Mamoru had a child together, then Maria and Mamoru were killed by the queerats and had their bones sent back to the district. Their child was raised by the queerats, which made the child recognize the queerats as his/her3 own species and enable him/her to freely massacre other humans. In the anime, the child is shown to be around 10 years old, which matches the timeline of the story.

1 This is confirmed by Wikipedia, both English and Japanese version. In the summary of the chapter 5 of Japanese version: 12 years passed, Saki and Satoru are now 26 years old. (12年が過ぎ、早季と覚は26歳になっていた。)

2 There are many differences between the manga and anime. However, the key part of the story remains: Maria and Mamoru leaves the district, their child raised by the queerats later helps the queerats attacking the village.

3 The child is male in the novel and female in the anime. According to cite note on Wikipedia.