Publication Date

Fall 2021

Abstract

Life history theory (LHT) is the conceptualization of tradeoffs in resources allocation. Plasticity, the ability of phenotypes to vary in response to environmental cues, is integral to LHT. Prior to completed maturation, resources are distributed towards maintenance or somatic maturation, a combination of growth and development (G&D). This dissertation presents an examination of intragroup variation in the G&D of the dental and skeletal systems within a sample of 20th century White females to consider whether they provide evidence for tradeoffs within the subadult interval. In a series of individual research chapters, I consider the following: 1) how does the relative variation in dental and skeletal development vary between development subsets? 2) how much variation in adolescent skeletal development (ASD) can be explained by earlier skeletal development and DL? 3) how do height growth curves vary among developmental subsets or between DL subsets? Variation in dental and skeletal development showed that only advanced developers are consistently significant different than other subsets. Younger development was able to predict ASD, although including infantile and pre-adolescent health increased the explained variation. Finally, comparing growth curves between developmental subsets shows that delayed individuals remained shorter than the advanced developers. DL subsets hint at tradeoffs for the higher DL subset. This dissertation expands the scope of LHT research to consider if patterns of variation within a population reflect those seen between populations. Growth, development, the relationship between the two, and the tradeoffs involved in reaching the adult form are fundamental to understanding human variation.

Keywords

growth, development, skeletal, dental, Bolton Brush

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Evolutionary Anthropology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Anthropology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Heather J. H. Edgar

Second Committee Member

Osbjorn Pearson

Third Committee Member

Manish Valiathan

Fourth Committee Member

Christopher W. Kuzawa

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