Growth of a species, an association, a science: 80 years of growth and development research

Abstract

Physical anthropological research was codified in the United States with the creation of the American Association of Physical Anthropology (AAPA) in 1929. That same year, a study began in yellow springs, Ohio, with a goal of identifying “what makes people different.” The approach used to answer that question was to study the growth and development of Homo sapiens. The resulting study, the Fels Longitudinal Study, is currently the longest continuous study of human growth and development in the world. Although the AAPA and the Fels Longitudinal Study have existed as separate entities for more than 80 years now, it is not surprising, given the relationship between anatomical and developmental research, there has been considerable overlap between the two. As the field of physical anthropology has blossomed to include subdisciplines such as forensics, genetics, primatology, as well as sophisticated statistical methodologies, the importance of growth and development research has escalated. Although current Fels Longitudinal Study research is largely directed at biomedical questions, virtually all findings are relevant to physical anthropology, providing insights into basic biological processes and life history parameters. Some key milestones from the early years of the AAPA and the Fels Longitudinal Study are highlighted here that address growth and development research in physical anthropology. These are still held as fundamental concepts that underscore the importance of this line of inquiry, not only across the subdisciplines of physical anthropology, but also among anthropological, biological, and biomedical inquiries.

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“…Its legacy is undisputed. The contribution of the Fels Longitudinal Study to the knowledge base regarding child body composition, growth, and physical maturation has been well documented (Roche, 1992) and includes a commemoration in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology (Sherwood & Duren, 2013). The impact of the seminal work on autonomic responsiveness by John and Beatrice Lacey (Lacey & Lacey, 1962), long-standing members of the Fels Institute, on the role of the autonomic nervous system in developmental psychophysiology cannot be overstated.…”

Relationships Between Age at Menarche, Walking Gait Base of Support, and Stance Phase Frontal Plane Knee Biomechanics in Adolescent Girls

“…The present study analyzed a sample of healthy adolescent females from the Fels Longitudinal Study (Fels). This long‐running longitudinal study of human growth and development has had more than 1200 serial participants [48] since 1929, many of whom had walking gait data collected between 2003 and 2009. Fels participants are mainly of European ancestry, live chiefly in southwest Ohio, and theoretically represent normal population variation because they have not been selected for any specific disease or trait.…”

Evidence of the non-linear nature of skeletal maturation

“…The study sample includes participants from the Fels Longitudinal Study (FLS), all of whom are from southwest Ohio and of primarily European descent (<1% other). Participants were assessed beginning at birth, every 3 months for the first year of life and every 6 months afterward until reaching adulthood 13 14. Inclusion in the present analysis required (1) 10 or more left hand–wrist radiographs with a skeletal maturity assessment between chronological ages 3 and 20 years and (2) that the first and last assessments of each radiograph occurred before 5 years and after 13 years of age in girls and before 7 years and after 15 years of age in boys.…”