Эпохальные изменения морфотипа современного человека (по антропометрическим данным ретроспективного исследования московской молодёжи)

Trends in body size were analyzed based on the results of anthropometric examination of more than 6300 undergraduate students of MSU, obtained in 2000–2018. The retrospective analysis was conducted by comparing data of total body dimensions collected on a sample of young males and females since 1920s. The observations of 17–18-year-old males and females demonstrated increase in height during the last 80 years until the beginning of XXI century in Moscow. This parameter was relatively stable in both sexes since the beginning of 2000s until present. Although the secular increase in body weight in either males or females still continued, some gender differences in growth dynamics of this index were observed. From the microevolutionary prospect highlighted tendencies could be explained as a result of changing lifestyle in modern human populations. Along with secular changes in body size the concomitant changes of head and face dimensions in both sexes were observed, which were probably related to debrachicephalization (decrease in cephalic index) and tendency toward leptoprosopia (increase in facial index). Investigated patterns of secular (cross–generational) changes in morphological characteristic of modern youth can reflect socio-economic processes occurring in society and could be of great importance for fundamental studies in biology and sociology as well as for preventive medicine.