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Anthropometric measurements and Darwinian fitness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

William H. Mueller ,
Gabriel W. Lasker  and
F. Gaynor Evans
William H. Mueller
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, Texas
Gabriel W. Lasker
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan
F. Gaynor Evans
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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Summary

The relationship between anthropometrics and three measures of Darwinian fitness—number of surviving children, number of living siblings and marital status—was sought in a population practising no contraception. The pattern suggestive of stabilizing selection was evident for one dimension, destabilizing selection for another dimension, and directional selection for yet another. The dimensions studied were those least intercorrelated one with another. Stabilizing selection for human physical characteristics may not be a universal phenomenon.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , July 1981 , pp. 309 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © 1981, Cambridge University Press

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