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5. DYNAMICS OF THE SEXUAL DIMORPHISM INDICES OF BODY DIMENSIONS OF CHILDREN FROM BIRTH TO 17 YEARS

DYNAMICS OF THE SEXUAL DIMORPHISM INDICES OF BODY DIMENSIONS OF CHILDREN FROM BIRTH TO 17 YEARS

Gorbacheva Anna, Fedotova Tatiana, Sukhova Alla

Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

Gorbacheva Anna, e-mail: angoria@yandex.ru,

Abstract

Age characteristics in the process of forming of the direction and degree of definitive adult sex differences are reviewed using a great number of children’s samples, collected by the authors and taken from the literature. To estimate the value of sexual differences the Kullback method is used. The analysis of 63 ethno-territorial samples of the newborns showed that the minimal variability belongs to the body mass – the main object of stabilizing selection and the main marker of the quality of intrauterine development. Body length and head and chest circumferences have relatively higher indices of sexual dimorphism, independent from ethnic and different ecological factors. Through the interval from birth to 7 years of age according to the data of three ethnic samples – Russians, Kazakhs, Kirghizs – the bigger skeletal and muscle dimensions of boys are maintained till the age of three years. Indices close to zero level through the age of 3-7 years in Russian and Kazakh samples are an evidence of comparable growth rates of children of both sexes. While negative values of the indices in Kirghiz children point to the more intensive growth processes in girls. The values of skinfolds in girls are higher through the whole interval and this tendency is stronger in 7-year-olds, more evident in Mongoloid groups. The common pattern of sexual dimorphism of skeletal and muscle dimensions through the period of 8-16 years may be described by the parabola of the 4th order with three bend points, connected with the differences of pubertal spurt in boys and girls. The dynamics of sexual differences of the skinfolds is characterized by a small degree through the second childhood and the beginning of the puberty, and its further gradual increase from 12 years of age towards the definitive status.

Keywords

sexual dimorphism, body dimensions, children from birth to 17 years

Цит.: Gorbacheva Anna, Fedotova Tatiana, Sukhova Alla DYNAMICS OF THE SEXUAL DIMORPHISM INDICES OF BODY DIMENSIONS OF CHILDREN FROM BIRTH TO 17 YEARS // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2014; 3/2014; с. 53-53