Ancestors shrink by 4 cm with switch to farming | Science

The shift from hunting and gathering methods to farming that took place among the natives more than 12,000 years ago shrunk people by about 4 centimeters.

This is indicated by a study developed by scientists at Penn State University located in the state of Pennsylvania in the United States. The results were published
In Pence, the official academic journal of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists note that low height is an indicator of the unstable health of the analyzed groups, as they found that these citizens do not have enough nutrition to maintain the rhythm of body growth.

In addition, the increase in diseases that afflicted the Neolithic peoples soon after the transition to agriculture also contributed to a decrease of 3.81 cm from their ancestors.

Stephanie Marciniak, study coordinator, says at report
Released by Penn State University.

The researchers analyzed the bodies of 167 people whose remains were found in countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Poland and Hungary. They all lived between 38,000 and 2,400,000 years ago.

The main focus of the research was to study the longer bones in the body of these ancestors and to draw similarities with DNA samples obtained in previous studies.

Scholars have also determined that after the Neolithic there were consistent increases in the height of people in the Copper, Bronze, and Iron Ages.

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