中石器时代的觅食者和新石器时代的农民之间的身材下降的证据已被解释为健康状况下降的反映,然而,我们目前对这一趋势的理解未能解释文化和饮食转变的复杂性或表型变化的可能原因.农业转型在主要驯化中心扩展,在以人口扩散为特征的地区突然发生。在北欧等难以建立外国驯养国的地区,有强有力的证据表明,与乳品有关的乳糖酶持久性的自然选择。我们对黎凡特的身高和体重的历时变化进行了广泛的分析,欧洲,尼罗河谷,南亚,和中国,为了测试关于生存变化时间和人体尺寸的三个假设,即:1)农业的采用导致地位下降,2)在农业的原位驯化或文化传播地区存在不同的轨迹;3)在有选择乳糖酶持久性的证据的地区观察到身高和体重的增加。我们的结果表明,1)在某些地区,身高下降先于农业起源;2)黎凡特和中国,物种就地驯化和长期混合觅食和农业生存的地区,随着时间的推移,身材和体重稳定;3)中欧和北欧的身材和体重增加与乳糖酶持久性选择性扫描的时机相吻合,为乳糖酶生长假说提供支持。
Evidence for a reduction in stature between Mesolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers has been interpreted as reflective of declines in health, however, our current understanding of this trend fails to account for the complexity of cultural and dietary transitions or the possible causes of phenotypic change. The agricultural transition was extended in primary centers of domestication and abrupt in regions characterized by demic diffusion. In regions such as Northern Europe where foreign domesticates were difficult to establish, there is strong evidence for natural selection for lactase persistence in relation to dairying. We employ broad-scale analyses of diachronic variation in stature and body mass in the Levant, Europe, the Nile Valley, South Asia, and
China, to test three hypotheses about the timing of subsistence shifts and human body size, that: 1) the adoption of agriculture led to a decrease in stature, 2) there were different trajectories in regions of in situ domestication or cultural diffusion of agriculture; and 3) increases in stature and body mass are observed in regions with evidence for selection for lactase persistence. Our results demonstrate that 1) decreases in stature preceded the origins of agriculture in some regions; 2) the Levant and
China, regions of in situ domestication of species and an extended period of mixed foraging and agricultural subsistence, had stable stature and body mass over time; and 3) stature and body mass increases in Central and Northern Europe coincide with the timing of selective sweeps for lactase persistence, providing support for the \"Lactase Growth Hypothesis.\"