Neolithic Made Us Taller and More Intelligent but More Prone to Heart Disease
Published:07 Apr.2022 Source:Radboud University Medical Center
Just like plants, animals and other organisms, humans are dynamic organisms with variable traits. Look at how humans behave and their appearance and you will see differences in skin colour, eating habits, susceptibility to diseases, height and so on. Such external features are called 'phenotype'. This appearance (phenotype) can be influenced by, for example, genetic factors, social and cultural habits, eating behaviour and environmental factors.
Nijmegen scientists, in cooperation with colleagues from the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI, Hannover), have investigated whether they could trace the development of some complex human traits of modern Europeans from, say, 50,000 years B.C. to the present. These are complex traits such as height and intelligence. In this case, 'complex' means this trait is not determined by one gene but by dozens or even hundreds of genes. Each of these genes has only a very small effect on such a trait.