The science of anthropology is chock-full of theories that have become common knowledge, but at the same time, science is all about questioning and researching what we think we know. The prevailing theory about why men are on average taller than women is explained by natural selection: men who are taller are more successful in competition with other men, including competition in mating, and therefore more likely to pass their genes on. Biological anthropologist Holly Dunsworth tells us that could be an example of circular thinking. What if it's not all about men?
“We need to have more if we’re going to advance the sexual selection hypothesis for why men are taller than women,” she said. In fact, we could turn the narrative on its head: “Maybe dominance and competition are consequences of those size differences rather than the cause,” she said.
Dunsworth found a more direct explanation when she dug into the literature on bone biology and development, focusing in particular on how those relate to hormones. That’s when it became clear to her that “women are shorter than men because most of them have ovaries.”
Read what effect ovaries -and therefore estrogen- could have had in the evolutionary development of human sexual dimorphism at Quanta magazine. -via Digg
(Image credit: Wellcome Images)
