Cargando…
Energetics as a driver of human morphological thermal adaptation; evidence from female ultra-endurance athletes
Functional benefits of the morphologies described by Bergmann's and Allen's rules in human males have recently been reported. However, the functional implications of ecogeographical patterning in females remain poorly understood. Here, we report the findings of preliminary work analysing t...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Cambridge University Press
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10427328/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37588555 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2021.17 |
_version_ | 1785090210603728896 |
---|---|
author | Longman, Daniel P. Murray, Alison Roberts, Rebecca Oakley, Saskia Wells, Jonathan C. K. Stock, Jay T. |
author_facet | Longman, Daniel P. Murray, Alison Roberts, Rebecca Oakley, Saskia Wells, Jonathan C. K. Stock, Jay T. |
author_sort | Longman, Daniel P. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Functional benefits of the morphologies described by Bergmann's and Allen's rules in human males have recently been reported. However, the functional implications of ecogeographical patterning in females remain poorly understood. Here, we report the findings of preliminary work analysing the association between body shape and performance in female ultramarathon runners (n = 36) competing in hot and cold environments. The body shapes differed between finishers of hot and cold races, and also between hot race finishers and non-finishers. Variability in race performance across different settings supports the notion that human phenotype is adapted to different thermal environments as ecogeographical patterns have reported previously. This report provides support for the recent hypothesis that the heightened thermal strain associated with prolonged physical activity in hot/cold environments may have driven the emergence of thermally adaptive phenotypes in our evolutionary past. These results also tentatively suggest that the relationship between morphology and performance may be stronger in female vs. male athletes. This potential sex difference is discussed with reference to the evolved unique energetic context of human female reproduction. Further work, with a larger sample size, is required to investigate the observed potential sex differences in the strength of the relationship between phenotype and performance. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10427328 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Cambridge University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-104273282023-08-16 Energetics as a driver of human morphological thermal adaptation; evidence from female ultra-endurance athletes Longman, Daniel P. Murray, Alison Roberts, Rebecca Oakley, Saskia Wells, Jonathan C. K. Stock, Jay T. Evol Hum Sci Research Article Functional benefits of the morphologies described by Bergmann's and Allen's rules in human males have recently been reported. However, the functional implications of ecogeographical patterning in females remain poorly understood. Here, we report the findings of preliminary work analysing the association between body shape and performance in female ultramarathon runners (n = 36) competing in hot and cold environments. The body shapes differed between finishers of hot and cold races, and also between hot race finishers and non-finishers. Variability in race performance across different settings supports the notion that human phenotype is adapted to different thermal environments as ecogeographical patterns have reported previously. This report provides support for the recent hypothesis that the heightened thermal strain associated with prolonged physical activity in hot/cold environments may have driven the emergence of thermally adaptive phenotypes in our evolutionary past. These results also tentatively suggest that the relationship between morphology and performance may be stronger in female vs. male athletes. This potential sex difference is discussed with reference to the evolved unique energetic context of human female reproduction. Further work, with a larger sample size, is required to investigate the observed potential sex differences in the strength of the relationship between phenotype and performance. Cambridge University Press 2021-03-29 /pmc/articles/PMC10427328/ /pubmed/37588555 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2021.17 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Longman, Daniel P. Murray, Alison Roberts, Rebecca Oakley, Saskia Wells, Jonathan C. K. Stock, Jay T. Energetics as a driver of human morphological thermal adaptation; evidence from female ultra-endurance athletes |
title | Energetics as a driver of human morphological thermal adaptation; evidence from female ultra-endurance athletes |
title_full | Energetics as a driver of human morphological thermal adaptation; evidence from female ultra-endurance athletes |
title_fullStr | Energetics as a driver of human morphological thermal adaptation; evidence from female ultra-endurance athletes |
title_full_unstemmed | Energetics as a driver of human morphological thermal adaptation; evidence from female ultra-endurance athletes |
title_short | Energetics as a driver of human morphological thermal adaptation; evidence from female ultra-endurance athletes |
title_sort | energetics as a driver of human morphological thermal adaptation; evidence from female ultra-endurance athletes |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10427328/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37588555 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2021.17 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT longmandanielp energeticsasadriverofhumanmorphologicalthermaladaptationevidencefromfemaleultraenduranceathletes AT murrayalison energeticsasadriverofhumanmorphologicalthermaladaptationevidencefromfemaleultraenduranceathletes AT robertsrebecca energeticsasadriverofhumanmorphologicalthermaladaptationevidencefromfemaleultraenduranceathletes AT oakleysaskia energeticsasadriverofhumanmorphologicalthermaladaptationevidencefromfemaleultraenduranceathletes AT wellsjonathanck energeticsasadriverofhumanmorphologicalthermaladaptationevidencefromfemaleultraenduranceathletes AT stockjayt energeticsasadriverofhumanmorphologicalthermaladaptationevidencefromfemaleultraenduranceathletes |