Tag: Insular Dwarfism

The Makhunik Ceiling

January 10, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

About a century ago the residents of Makhunik in eastern Iran may have measured just 100cm tall – some 50cm shorter than the average height of their contemporaries. Of the roughly 200 stone and clay houses that make up the ancient village, some 70 or…

Shrinking is Easy

September 5, 2013 By arne hendriks 1

There’s a basic asymmetry in macro-evolution. On the evolutionary scale shrinking is easy and growing large is difficult. This is probably due to the emergence, during a trend of increasing maximum body size, of a series of anatomical, physiological, environmental, genetic and other constraints that…