Variation in Human Body Size and Shape
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7635273 |
|---|---|
| Authors | C B Ruff (0000-0002-2932-3634, Johns Hopkins Medicine, corresponding author), Christopher Ruff (Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1830 E. Monument St., Baltimore, Maryland 21205) |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 211-232 |
| Publication date | 2002-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annual Review of Anthropology (BOOK_SERIES) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0084-6570 • E-ISSN: 1545-4290 |
| Publisher | Annual Reviews (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085407 |
| OpenAlex | W2144250538 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 193 |
| References cited | 103 |
Evolutionary trends in human body form provide important context for interpreting variation among modern populations. Average body mass in living humans is smaller than it was during most of the Pleistocene, possibly owing to technological improvements during the past 50,000 years that no longer favored large body size. Sexual dimorphism in body size reached modern levels at least 150,000 years ago and probably earlier. Geographic variation in both body size and shape in earlier humans paralleled latitudinal clines observed today. Climatic adaptation is the most likely primary cause for these gradients, overlain in more recent populations by nutritional effects on growth. Thus, to distinguish growth disturbances, it is necessary to partition out the (presumably genetic) long-term differences in body form between populations that have resulted from climatic selection. An example is given from a study of Inupiat children, using a new index of body shape to assess relative body mass
Adaptation (eye · Allometry · Bergmann's rule · Biology · Body proportions · Body weight · Context (archaeology · Evolutionary biology · Geographic variation · Geography · Latitude · Microevolution · Pleistocene · Population · Sexual dimorphism · Variation (astronomy · Zoology · Demography · Ecology · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Morphological variations and asymmetry · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
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Estimation of African apes’ body size from postcranial dimensions
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Body form and nutritional status among adult males of different social groups in Orissa and Bihar States in India
A diachronic examination of biomechanical changes in skeletal remains from Tombos in ancient Nubia
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Bergmann's rule is a "just-so" story of human body size
Assessment of an east-west phenotypic variation in body height, body form and body mass among prehistoric hunter-gatherers of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, chile
Zhodnocení možností odhadu pohlaví autorů paleolitických nástěnných maleb z otisků ruky
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Evolutionary Medicine
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Malnutrition
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Morphological signatures of high-altitude adaptations in the Andean archaeological record
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Is Air Temperature at Birth Associated with Body Mass Index in 9–10 Year-Old Children
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Estimating sex using isolated appendicular skeletal elements from Chachapoyas, Peru
Carious lesions as evidence for different adaptation strategies during the middle-late Holocene in the Gansu region, northwest China
Challenges in Approaches to Skeletal Stature Estimation
Revised stature estimations for individuals from Roonka, South Australia
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Craniometric evidence for South African Later Stone Age herders and hunter–gatherers being a single biological population
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Levels of Intraspecific Variation Within the Catarrhine Skeleton
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Physiology and Development
Possible causes and significance of cranial robusticity among Pleistocene–Early Holocene Australians
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Spatial-temporal variations of Paleolithic human activities in Northeast China
Climate Change Predictive of Body Size and Proportionality in Humans
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Neanderthals Revisited
Hemochromatosis
Body proportions in ancient Andeans from high and low altitudes
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Allometric scaling and growth
Craniofacial variation and population continuity during the South African Holocene
The association between knee breadth and body mass
Stature and body mass estimation from skeletal remains in the European Holocene
The biology of the colonizing ape
The obstetric dilemma
Body mass prediction from femoral volume and sixteen other femoral variables in the elderly
Human body mass estimation
The big and small of it
Human Nutritional Evolution
Growth Variation
Body, Evolution of
Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture
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The Nariokotome Homo Erectus Skeleton
Scaling
Body Size and Body Shape
A complete human pelvis from the Middle Pleistocene of Spain
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Physical growth
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The early Upper Paleolithic human skeleton from the Abrigo do Lagar Velho (Portugal) and modern human emergence in Iberia
New partial skeleton of Homo habilis from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
New four-million-year-old hominid species from Kanapoi and Allia Bay, Kenya
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Climatic influences on human body size and proportions
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Postcranial evidence of cold adaptation in European Neandertals
Climatic influences on human body size and proportions
Trends in cranial capacity and cranial index in Subsaharan Africa during the Holocene
Increase in length of leg relative to trunk in Japanese children and adults from 1957 to 1977
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Diaphyseal Cross-sectional Geometry of Near Eastern Middle Palaeolithic Humans
Ecogeographical patterning and stature prediction in fossil hominids
Problems of body-weight estimation in fossil primates
Physical growth of St. Lawrence Island Eskimos
Postcranial robusticity in Homo . III
Postcranial robusticity in Homo . II
Postcranial robusticity in Homo . I
Evolution in the postcranial skeleton of Late Glacial and early Postglacial European hominids
Diaphyseal Cross-sectional Geometry of Near Eastern Middle Palaeolithic Humans
Studies on growth and development in Japan
Body size and proportions in early hominids
Adult stature and age at menarche in Zapotec‐speaking communities in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, in a secular perspective
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Articular and diaphyseal remodeling of the proximal femur with changes in body mass in adults
Kebara 2 Neanderthal pelvis
Allometric scaling in the dentition of primates and prediction of body weight from tooth size in fossils
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Findings from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America on secular change in mean height of children, youths, and young adults
Migration and the plasticity of physique in the Japanese‐Americans of Hawaii
Sex differences in environmental sensitivity during growth and development
General relations of sitting height to stature and of sitting height and stature to weight
Fossil Homo femur from Berg Aukas, northern Namibia
Articular area responses to mechanical loading
Lucy's length
Relative cheek‐tooth size in Australopithecus
Biomechanics of the hip and birth in early Homo
Body mass prediction from skeletal frame size in elite athletes
Morphological adaptation to climate in modern and fossil hominids
Secular change in long bone length and proportion in the United States, 1800-1970
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The body weight of AL 288‐1 (‘Lucy)
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The Middle Pleistocene human tibia from Boxgrove
The negative secular trend
Climate and body shape in hominid evolution
Allometry and the analysis of size and shape in human evolution
Body proportions inAustralopithecus afarensisandA. africanusand the origin of the genusHomo
Diaphyseal cross-sectional geometry of the Boxgrove 1 Middle Pleistocene human tibia
Clavicles, scapulae and humeri from the Sima de los Huesos site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain)
Interpreting hominid behavior on the basis of sexual dimorphism
Was "Lucy" more human than her "child"? Observations on early hominid postcranial skeletons
Behavioral ecological implications of early hominid body size
Sexual dimorphism in human lower limb bone structure
Recently identified postcranial remains of Paranthropus and Early Homo from Swartkrans Cave, South Africa
The thermoregulatory advantages of large body size for hominids foraging in savannah environments
Sexual dimorphism inAustralopithecus afarensis
Comparative primate energetics and hominid evolution
Trends in stature in the South Australian Aboriginal Murraylands
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Eskimos of Northwestern Alaska. A Biological Perspective
Eskimos of Northwestern Alaska
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The Uruk World System
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Nutritional Adaptation
The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis
| Unique citing works | 193 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 8,39 |
| Citation span | 2003 - 2026 (24) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 183 |