Secular Changes in the Morphotype of the Modern Human (Based on Anthropometric Data from a Retrospective Survey of Moscow Youth)

Abstract

Trends in body size in young men and women in the early 21st century were analyzed based on the results of anthropometric examination of more than 6300 undergraduate students of various departments of Moscow State University that were obtained in 2000–2018. The retrospective analysis was conducted by comparing data of total body dimensions collected based on a sample of Moscow youth examined in different years since the 1920s. The observations of 17–18-year-old young men and women demonstrated an increase in height during the last 80 years until the beginning of the 21st century in Moscow. This parameter was noted to be relatively stable in both sexes since the beginning of 2000s until present. Against the background of the secular increase in body weight, which continues at present, some sex differences in growth dynamics of this index were observed. From the microevolutionary prospect, the noted tendencies could be explained as a result of changing lifestyle in modern human populations. Along with secular changes in body size, both sexes were observed to have concomitant changes of head and face dimensions, which were probably related to debrachycephalization (decrease in cephalic index) and a tendency toward leptoprosopia (increase in facial index). The observed patterns of secular (cross-generational) changes in morphological characteristic of modern youth can reflect socio-economic processes occurring in society and could be of great importance for fundamental studies in biology and sociology as well as for preventive medicine.