Our results are consistent with an overall reduction of the skeleton in this population rather than localized reductions in specific body regions or in soft tissue mass. Females displayed more extreme changes than males, and this pattern may suggest that females are under stronger selection for environmental reasons, possibly due to the physiological demands of pregnancy. Female-male differences may also reflect early female age at first birth, which occurs prior to full skeletal maturation and may directly affect female growth.
Villamil et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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