Population history and ecology, in addition to climate, influence human stature and body proportions

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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pomeroy, Emma, Stock, Jay T., Wells, Jonathan C. K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7801440/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33431970
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79501-w
_version_ 1783635575525343232
author Pomeroy, Emma
Stock, Jay T.
Wells, Jonathan C. K.
author_facet Pomeroy, Emma
Stock, Jay T.
Wells, Jonathan C. K.
author_sort Pomeroy, Emma
collection PubMed
description 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.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7801440
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-78014402021-01-12 Population history and ecology, in addition to climate, influence human stature and body proportions Pomeroy, Emma Stock, Jay T. Wells, Jonathan C. K. Sci Rep Article 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. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7801440/ /pubmed/33431970 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79501-w Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Pomeroy, Emma
Stock, Jay T.
Wells, Jonathan C. K.
Population history and ecology, in addition to climate, influence human stature and body proportions
title Population history and ecology, in addition to climate, influence human stature and body proportions
title_full Population history and ecology, in addition to climate, influence human stature and body proportions
title_fullStr Population history and ecology, in addition to climate, influence human stature and body proportions
title_full_unstemmed Population history and ecology, in addition to climate, influence human stature and body proportions
title_short Population history and ecology, in addition to climate, influence human stature and body proportions
title_sort population history and ecology, in addition to climate, influence human stature and body proportions
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7801440/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33431970
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79501-w
work_keys_str_mv AT pomeroyemma populationhistoryandecologyinadditiontoclimateinfluencehumanstatureandbodyproportions
AT stockjayt populationhistoryandecologyinadditiontoclimateinfluencehumanstatureandbodyproportions
AT wellsjonathanck populationhistoryandecologyinadditiontoclimateinfluencehumanstatureandbodyproportions