Moscow University
Anthropology
Bulletin
Anthropology
Bulletin
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Mokhovaya st., 11, Moscow, 125009, Russia
Gorbacheva Anna K., Ph.D., ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5201-7128, e-mail: angoria@yandex.ru; Fedotova Tatiana K, Ph.D., D.Sc., ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7750-7924, e-mail: tatiana.fedotova@mail.ru
The article deals with the secular and territorial variability of the sexual dimorphism of the main dimensions of the newborn, using vast material on the physical development of children from the former USSR. Ethnic and territorial variability of the sexual dimorphism of 4 body dimensions (body length and mass, chest and head circumferences) is analyzed using 63 newborn samples from the former USSR of 1970, all newborn are single born, term babies. The secular variability of the sexual dimorphism of the body length and mass is analyzed using a number of samples of Moscow newborn infants, including the 60-years time interval – archives data of 1952, 1973-74, 1982 and 1991; data collected by the authors in 2010-2011 in the antenatal maternity clinics of Moscow. To have the opportunity of complete comparison of the index in different samples we used the Kullback distance – the index expressed in its own standard deviations. For the slavonic newborn groups the minimal territorial variations of the sexual dimorphism value are registered for the body mass, which illustrates the well known fact of the stabilizing selection of this index. For most samples its value ranges from 0.1 to 0.4 of Kullback distance and the differences between samples may be regarded nonsignificant, as they do not exceed the distance 0.3. The sexual dimorphism of the body length is more variable and changes mainly from 0.1 to 0.6 and is not connected with climatic and geographical factors. Territorial variations of the index for the circumferences, head and chest, have the same scale as for the body length but different territorial attachments of maximal and minimal values of the index, which do not coincide with the situation for the body length. The situation with ethnic groups completely corresponds to the situation with slavonic newborn groups, while the largest and the least values of the index for different measurements are not connected either with climatic and geographi-cal factors or with the ethnic parameters. The secular dynamics of the sexual dimorphism of the body mass and length of Moscow newborn through the interval from 1950th till now varies in the very narrow corridor of Kullback distance 0.2–0.4 and the differences of the index value for different time cuts are not significant. Still it’s possible to fix the modest secular tendency of the increase of the sexual dimorphism of the body length and the decrease of the index of the body mass. These results correspond to the ten-dencies of secular dynamics of the measurements themselves for Moscow newborn through the latest decades – secular stability of the value of the body mass and the permanent trend of the secular increase of the body length. Thus the main valid result of our study is that the minimal variability of the index of the sexual dimorphism among the body dimensions of the newborn belongs to the body mass – the main object of the stabilizing selection. The body length and chest and head circumferences have higher indices of the sexual dimorphism, independent from ethnic and ecological factors.
anthropology, newborn, sexual dimorphism, body length and mass, chest and head circumferences, spatial and temporal diversity of sexual dimorphism
Цит.: Gorbacheva A.K.,Fedotova T.K. Ethno-territorial and temporal diversity of the sexual dimorphism of the body dimensions of the newborn // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2015; 4/2015; с. 34-41
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