Hunter-gatherer child and adolescent height and tricep skinfold measures

<p>Despite agreement that humans have evolved to be unusually fat primates, adipose patterning among hunter-gatherers has received little empirical consideration. Here we consider the development of adiposity among four contemporary groups of hunter-gatherers, the Aka, Savanna Pumé, Ju'/Hoansi and Agta using multi-level generalized additive mixed modeling (GAMM) to characterize growth of tricep skinfolds from early childhood through adolescence. In contrast to references, hunter-gatherers show several consistent patterns: 1) children are lean with little fat accumulation; 2) no adiposity rebound at 5 years is evident; 3) girls on average build 90% of their body size, and reach menarche when adiposity is at its maximum velocity; 4) a metabolic tradeoff is evident in young, but not older children, such that both boys and girls prioritize skeletal growth during middle childhood, a tradeoff that diminishes during adolescence when height velocity increases in pace with fat accumulation. Consistent results across hunter-gatherers living in diverse environments suggests that these patterns reflect a general forager pattern of development. The findings provide a valuable baseline for adipose development not apparent from reference populations. We emphasize both generalized trends among hunter-gatherers, and that inter-populational differences point to the plasticity with which humans organize growth and development.</p>