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Secular Trends in Body Height — Indicator of General Improvement In Living Conditions or of a Change in Specific Factors?

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Perspectives in Human Growth, Development and Maturation

Abstract

Body size of an animal is a result of its adaptations. These consist of long-term genetic effects and short-term adjustments during individual ontogeny. To what extent is the variability of body size in a human population dependent on the genetic background, and to what on direct ontogenetic adjustments is indicated, although imperfectly, by the heritability coefficients (Falconer 1980). These are invariably high for body height (Cavalli-Sforza and Bodmer 1971, Mueller 1976, Roberts et al. 1978, Susanne 1971). Typically more than 90% of variation in height is due to the variation of the underlying genetic material. The rest is due to direct environmental influences upon individual bodies and to measurement errors including diurnal, or seasonal fluctuations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wood Jones Chair of Anthropological and Comparative Anatomy, University of Adelaide Medical School, Adelaide, Australia

    M. Henneberg

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  1. M. Henneberg
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Anthroplogy and Human Genetics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, India

    Parasmani Dasgupta

  2. Laboratory of Anthropogenetics, Free University Brussels, Belgium

    Roland Hauspie

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Henneberg, M. (2001). Secular Trends in Body Height — Indicator of General Improvement In Living Conditions or of a Change in Specific Factors?. In: Dasgupta, P., Hauspie, R. (eds) Perspectives in Human Growth, Development and Maturation. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9801-9_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9801-9_14

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  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5820-1

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