Re:Dutch went from shortest to tallest in Europe through sex...
by tenant on Monday February 24, 2020 @11:03AM
(#22405209)
I suppose my main issue is that I just don't think the passage of time since the mid 19th century is long enough to give a natural selection answer for humans. Perhaps it might be more believable if Holland had suffered great loss of male life in WW1/WW2 and smaller men were disproportionately affected leaving tall men to breed widely. But Holland wasn't in WW1 and its loss of life in WW2 was relatively light.
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Re:Dutch went from shortest to tallest in Europe through sex...
by econcon on Monday February 24, 2020 @11:25AM
(#22405444)
It's been 150 years, roughly 3 generations can fit in that. Also, you are improving average height of population here, so if you simply remove a lot of people with below average height, average benefits a lot.
Re:Dutch went from shortest to tallest in Europe through sex...
by tenant on Monday February 24, 2020 @11:42AM
(#22405607)
More like 5 generations but there was no one in charge of this breeding programme. It seems that a lot of Dutch men decided to voluntarily forego sex but to raise the children of women who were breeding with the tall men.
And this phenomenon to have been peculiar to Holland.
Just doesn't seem believable.