ArticleScientific reports2021
Population history and ecology, in addition to climate, influence human stature and body proportions.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Body composition, geography and ethnicity: understanding the associations with health.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2026Review
- Reconstruction and Comparative Analysis of a Large Late Pleistocene Modern Human Femur From Wajak, Indonesia.American journal of biological anthropology · 2026Article
- Multifactorial drivers of spatial variation in human body form across modern China.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Joint statement from GOLD/GLI regarding the use of spirometry to define airflow obstruction and diagnose COPD.The European respiratory journal · 2026Article
- Biological Mechanisms for Allen's Rule: DNA Methylation as Mediator of the Association Between In Utero Exposure to Environmental Heat and Tibial Growth in Childhood.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Spirometry at different Latin American altitudes: a Global Lung Function Initiative project.ERJ open research · 2025Article
- The Contribution of the Distal Limbs to Height and Proportions in Different Socioeconomic Groups.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Influence of body dimensions and sex on cold-induced vasodilation.European journal of applied physiology · 2025Article
- In Search of Environmental Factors Associated With Global Differences in Birth Weight and BMI.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Race and geography impact validity of maximum allowable standing height equations for para-athletes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- How to account for Inuit ancestry in lung function prediction.International journal of circumpolar health · 2023Article
- Race and Ethnicity in Pulmonary Function Test Interpretation: An Official American Thoracic Society Statement.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2023Article
- Early childhood growth in Daasanach pastoralists of Northern Kenya: Distinct patterns of faltering in linear growth and weight gain.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2023Article
- Bergmann's rule is a "just-so" story of human body size.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2022Review
- Evolution of Lactase Persistence: Turbo-Charging Adaptation in Growth Under the Selective Pressure of Maternal Mortality?Frontiers in physiology · 2021Article
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3 authors.
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Abstract
Worldwide variation in human stature and limb proportions is widely accepted to reflect thermal adaptation, but the contribution of population history to this variation is unknown. Furthermore, stature and relative lower limb length (LLL) show substantial plastic responses to environmental stressors, e.g., nutrition, pathogen load, which covary with climate. Thus ecogeographic patterns may go beyond temperature-based selection. We analysed global variation in stature, sitting height and absolute and relative LLL using large worldwide samples of published anthropometric data from adult male (n = 571) and female (n = 268) populations in relation to temperature, humidity, and net primary productivity (NPP). Population history was modeled using spatial eigenvector mapping based on geographic distances reflecting the hypothesized pattern for the spread of modern humans out of Africa. Regression models account for ~ 50% of variation in most morphological variables. Population history explains slightly more variation in stature, sitting height and LLL than the environmental/climatic variables. After adjusting for population history, associations between (usually maximum) temperature and LLL are consistent with Allen's "rule" and may drive similar relationships with stature. NPP is a consistent negative predictor of anthropometry, which may reflect the growth-limiting effects of lower environmental resource accessibility (inversely related to NPP) and/or pathogen load.
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