Short stature in African pygmies is not explained by sexual selection |
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| Authors: | Noémie SA Becker Priscille Touraille Alain Froment Evelyne Heyer Alexandre Courtiol |
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| Institution: | 1. Gender Identity Service, Child, Youth and Family Services, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada;2. Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA, USA;3. Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada;4. Department of Anthropology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA;1. Department of Psychology, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada;2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, United States;3. Department of Psychology, Nipissing University, North Bay, Ontario, Canada;4. Physical and Health Education, Nipissing University, North Bay, Ontario, Canada;5. Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada;1. Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, UK;2. Department of Psychology, Humboldt State University, USA;3. School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, China;4. Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, VU, Amsterdam, Netherlands;5. Institute Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | African pygmies' short stature has been studied for more than a century, but the evolution of this extreme phenotype remains unknown. The present study tests the hypothesis that sexual selection, through preference for short partners, may have contributed to the evolution of pygmies' stature. We gathered anthropometric and familial data from 72 Baka pygmy couples and 27 neighboring Nzimé nonpygmy couples from Cameroon. We found evidence for positive assortative mating and partial evidence for the male-taller norm in both groups. This is surprisingly close to results reported for many modern occidental populations, in which sexual selection is thought to exert a positive selective pressure on men height. Semistructured interviews of Baka pygmies concerning height and mate choice suggested that the male-taller norm matches mating preferences. Stature was also positively correlated with the number of serial marriages contracted by men of both populations, while the stature of women was not related to their mating success. Finally, we did not detect any linear or quadratic effect of height on reproductive success for either men or women. Altogether, our results demonstrate that stature influences mate choice in pygmies, and we argue that, if of any influence for sexual selection, mate choice should have favored tallness rather than shortness in our pygmy population. Consequently, this study establishes that sexual selection is a very unlikely candidate to account for the evolution of pygmies' short stature. |
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