The impact of energetic trade-offs on the developmental trajectory and life history strategy of Homo sapiens: The modern human female phenotype

This study interrogates the relationship between early life environmental variability (measured through birth weight and age at menarche), and adult phenotypic outcomes in female athletes and non-athletes from the United Kingdom. Using anthropometric, and 3D body surface scan analysis, patterns of phenotypic variation were interpreted in a life history context. Significant correlations between birth weight, stature, and bi-iliac breadth were observed. Age at menarche had significant correlations with linear growth and body composition measures in both Pearson and Canonical Correlation analyses. Crural index was found to be negatively correlated with limb segment SA:Vol in opposition to the expectations of Allen’s rule, a result that requires further investigation. Overall, variation in age at menarche was related to adult phenotypic variation, specifically linear skeletal growth, which may allow the development of regression equations that estimate life history variables in bioarchaeological populations, which would aid in more accurate interpretations of the past.