Women Getting Shorter, Heavier

They'll lose 1 inch and gain 2 pounds by 2409
By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 21, 2009 2:18 PM CDT
Women Getting Shorter, Heavier
Three generations of healthy women.   (Shutterstock)

Humans are still changing, and the female winners of the evolutionary crapshoot will be shorter and heavier down the line. A new study that tracked the motherly productivity of the slim-and-tall set alongside their squatter peers concludes that a lower center of gravity will win out in the end, and it offers a surprising prediction: By 2409, women will be on average almost an inch shorter and 2 pounds heavier.

Still think evolution isn’t working on us humans? “That’s just plain false,” the study’s lead author says. Another finding: women who give birth earlier or enter menopause later appear to pass those traits along to their daughters. As a result, researchers think that women will eventually produce babies at a younger age than they do now, by 5 months or so on average, and enter menopause 10 months later, notes the Telegraph.
(More evolution stories.)

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