energetics-as-a-driver-of-human-morphological-thermal-adaptation-evidence-from-female-ultra-endurance-athletes.pdf (307.73 kB)
Energetics as a driver of human morphological thermal adaptation; evidence from female ultra-endurance athletes
journal contribution
posted on 2021-06-02, 10:21 authored by Daniel LongmanDaniel Longman, Alison Murray, Rebecca Roberts, Saskia Oakley, Jonathan CK Wells, Jay T StockFunctional benefits of the morphologies described by Bergmann’s and Allen’s rules in human males have
recently been reported. However, the functional implications of ecogeographical patterning in females
remain poorly understood. Here, we report the findings of preliminary work analysing the association
between body shape and performance in female ultramarathon runners (n = 36) competing in hot and
cold environments. The body shapes differed between finishers of hot and cold races, and also between
hot race finishers and non-finishers. Variability in race performance across different settings supports the
notion that human phenotype is adapted to different thermal environments as ecogeographical patterns
have reported previously. This report provides support for the recent hypothesis that the heightened
thermal strain associated with prolonged physical activity in hot/cold environments may have driven
the emergence of thermally adaptive phenotypes in our evolutionary past. These results also tentatively
suggest that the relationship between morphology and performance may be stronger in female vs. male
athletes. This potential sex difference is discussed with reference to the evolved unique energetic context
of human female reproduction. Further work, with a larger sample size, is required to investigate the
observed potential sex differences in the strength of the relationship between phenotype and performance.
History
School
- Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Published in
Evolutionary Human SciencesVolume
3Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)Version
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© The AuthorsPublisher statement
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Cambridge University Press under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0). Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Publication date
2021-03-29Copyright date
2021eISSN
2513-843XPublisher version
Language
- en
Depositor
Dr Daniel Longman. Deposit date: 2 June 2021Article number
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