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OBJECTIVES: The current study assessed whether ecogeographical patterns seen in hand proportions correlate with heat loss directly. Using a brief severe cold immersion experiment on the hand, the influence of hand and digit dimensions on heat loss was evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A sample of 113 living individuals were tested. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional scanning techniques were used to assess hand and digit dimensions. Thermal imaging analysis was used to quantify heat loss during a 3-min ice-water immersion of the hands. RESULTS: When body size was accounted for, hand width and digit length relative to total hand length were significant predictors of heat loss from the hand. DISCUSSION: The current study provides empirical evidence to support the link between thermodynamic principles relating to surface area-to-volume ratio, and ecogeographical patterns associated with temperature.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the influence of body size and composition on maintaining hand temperature during severe cold exposure. The hand's high surface area-to-volume ratio predisposes the hand to heat loss, increasing the risk of cold injury and even hypothermia, which are major selective pressures in cold environments. While vasoregulation may reduce heat loss from the hand, the effect of body form, tissue thermogenesis, and body insulation on heat loss is unknown. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thermal imaging was used to determine heat loss during a 3-min ice-water hand immersion test carried out on 114 volunteers (female = 63, male = 51). Established anthropometric measures were used to quantify body size, and bioelectrical impedance analysis determined skeletal muscle and fat mass. RESULTS: Skeletal muscle mass relative to body mass was a highly significant predictor of heat loss, while body mass, fat mass, and stature were not. Body composition and body size had little to no significant influence during rewarming after immersion. DISCUSSION: The thermogenic properties of muscle mass support maintenance of hand temperature during severe cold exposure. The findings here suggest that muscular individuals are less susceptible to heat loss and cold injury, and may be better at manual tasks in cold conditions than nonmuscular individuals.

OBJECTIVES: Estimating body mass from skeletal dimensions is widely practiced, but methods for estimating its components (lean and fat mass) are poorly developed. The ability to estimate these characteristics would offer new insights into the evolution of body composition and its variation relative to past and present health. This study investigates the potential of long bone cross-sectional properties as predictors of body, lean, and fat mass. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Humerus, femur and tibia midshaft cross-sectional properties were measured by peripheral quantitative computed tomography in sample of young adult women (n = 105) characterized by a range of activity levels. Body composition was estimated from bioimpedance analysis. RESULTS: Lean mass correlated most strongly with both upper and lower limb bone properties (r values up to 0.74), while fat mass showed weak correlations (r ≤ 0.29). Estimation equations generated from tibial midshaft properties indicated that lean mass could be estimated relatively reliably, with some improvement using logged data and including bone length in the models (minimum standard error of estimate = 8.9%). Body mass prediction was less reliable and fat mass only poorly predicted (standard errors of estimate ≥11.9% and >33%, respectively). DISCUSSION: Lean mass can be predicted more reliably than body mass from limb bone cross-sectional properties. The results highlight the potential for studying evolutionary trends in lean mass from skeletal remains, and have implications for understanding the relationship between bone morphology and body mass or composition.

Early life conditions play an important role in determining adult body size. In particular, childhood malnutrition and disease can elicit growth delays and affect adult body size if severe or prolonged enough. In the earliest stages of farming, skeletal growth impairment and small adult body size are often documented relative to hunter-gatherer groups, though this pattern is regionally variable. In Central/Southeast Europe, it is unclear how early life stress, growth history, and adult body size were impacted by the introduction of agriculture and ensuing long-term demographic, social, and behavioral change. The current study assesses this impact through the reconstruction and analysis of mean stature, body mass, limb proportion indices, and sexual dimorphism among 407 skeletally mature men and women from foraging and farming populations spanning the Late Mesolithic through Early Medieval periods in Central/Southeast Europe (~7100 calBC to 850 AD). Results document significantly reduced mean stature, body mass, and crural index in Neolithic agriculturalists relative both to Late Mesolithic hunter-gatherer-fishers and to later farming populations. This indication of relative growth impairment in the Neolithic, particularly among women, is supported by existing evidence of high developmental stress, intensive physical activity, and variable access to animal protein in these early agricultural populations. Among subsequent agriculturalists, temporal increases in mean stature, body mass, and crural index were more pronounced among Central European women, driving declines in the magnitude of sexual dimorphism through time. Overall, results suggest that the transition to agriculture in Central/Southeast Europe was challenging for early farming populations, but was followed by gradual amelioration across thousands of years, particularly among Central European women. This sex difference may be indicative, in part, of greater temporal variation in the social status afforded to young girls, in their access to resources during growth, and/or in their health status than was experienced by men.

Objectives To systematically characterize intra‐limb patterns of skeletal plasticity to loading among living women, in order to better understand regional complexity in structural adaptation within the lower limb and more accurately infer behavior in the past. Materials and methods We used peripheral quantitative computed tomography imaging of the femur, tibia, first and second metatarsals to quantify bone morphology among female controls and athletes representative of either terrestrial or marine mobility, grouped by loading category (odd‐impact, repetitive low‐impact, and high‐magnitude). Parameters included midshaft bone density, areas, rigidity, and shape, epiphyseal bone densities and areas. We assessed between‐group differences and the influence of training history on significant variation among the loading groups. Results Terrestrial mobility strategies were best distinguished by significant midshaft periosteal hypertrophy across the lower limb/foot relative to controls, and by particularly high midshaft femoral and tibial cortical bone areas relative to rowers. Enhanced midshaft bone area was typically paired with decreased bone density among athlete groups. Sport‐specific variation in training duration/timing was significantly correlated with multiple midshaft parameters. Discussion Results demonstrate characteristic patterns of intra‐limb adaptation to terrestrial and marine mobility strategies among active women relative to controls, and highlight components of these patterns that may be shaped in part by differences in loading duration/timing. Additionally, our findings support constraints on skeletal variation in the distal tibia and foot relative to more proximal locations about the knee among living women. For example, metatarsal variation was constrained, but where present reflected sport‐specific variation in force distribution in the foot.

Humeral morphology has been shown to reflect, in part, habitual manipulative behaviors in humans. Among Central European agricultural populations, long-term social change, increasing task specialization, and technological innovation all had the potential to impact patterns of habitual activity and upper limb asymmetry. However, systematic temporal change in the skeletal morphology of agricultural populations in this region has not been well-characterized. This study investigates diachronic patterns in humeral biomechanical properties and lengths among 174 adult Central European agriculturalists through the first ∼ 5400 years of farming in the region. Greater asymmetry in biomechanical properties was expected to accompany the introduction of metallurgy, particularly in males, while upper limb loading patterns were expected to be more similar between the Bronze and Iron Ages. Results revealed a divergence in the lateralization of upper limb biomechanical properties by sex between the Early/Middle Neolithic and Early/Middle Bronze Age. Neolithic females had significantly more variable properties than males in both humeri, while Bronze Age female properties became homogeneous and very symmetrical relative to the right-biased lateralization of contemporaneous males. The Bronze Age to Iron Age transition was associated with morphological change among females, with a significant increase in right-biased asymmetry and a concomitant reduction in sexual dimorphism. Relative to biomechanical properties, humeral length variation and asymmetry were low though some significant sexual dimorphism and temporal change was found. It was among females that the lateralization of humeral biomechanical properties, and variation within them, changed most profoundly through time. This suggests that the introduction of the ard and plow, metallurgical innovation, task specialization, and socioeconomic change through ∼ 5400 years of agriculture impacted upper limb loading in Central European women to a greater extent than men.