Survival Of The Fittest Favours Short, Plump Women
October 22, 2009 No Comments
Scientists have proven that models are becoming extinct… well, sort of.
A study of over 14,000 women showed which way the evolutionary winds are blowing. Women who are shorter and plumper are wining the survival of the fittest.
The downside is the the women of the future will have to deal with more periods.
Medical advances have led some people to believe that evolution is now defunct for the human species, but they are forgetting an important part of the equation — kids!
“That’s just plain false,” says Stephen Stearns, an evolutionary biologist at Yale University. He says although differences in survival may no longer select “fitter” humans and their genes, differences in reproduction still can. The question is whether women who have more children have distinguishing traits which they pass on to their offspring.
They looked at three generations of residents in Framingham, Massachusetts and found that shorter, heavier women have more children. There was also a correlation between lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol and more children. Women who hit puberty early, or who entered menopause later had a longer window in which to have offspring, which tended to increase their numbers.
Most of these traits were passed on to their daughters who also went on to have a large number of children. In ten generations women will be 2cm shorter and 1kg heavier, on average. So not a big difference, but one all the same.
One of the issues that has always bothered me about this is that people who can’t figure out birth control are more likely to have more children. I am not bothered by which physical traits are passed on to the next generation but I would hate to think we are breeding future generations to be idiots with no impulse control.
