CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 117Morphological variations and asymmetryForensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology StudiesEvolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior

Allometry and sexual dimorphism in the human pelvis

Open access
Fischer, Barbara, Mitteroecker, Philipp·2017·The Anatomical Record
DOI 10.1002/ar.23549
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Sexual dimorphism in the human pelvis has evolved in response to several jointly acting selection regimes that result from the pelvis' multiple roles in locomotion and childbirth, among others. Because human males are, on average, taller than females, some aspects of sexual dimorphism in pelvis shape might result from allometry, the association between stature and pelvis shape across individuals. In this study, they aimed to disentangle and quantify the two components contributing to pelvic sex differences: the allometric component, which emerges as a consequence of dimorphism in stature, and the remaining non-allometric sexual dimorphism component. A geometric morphometric analysis of a dense set of 3D landmarks, measured on 99 female and male adult individuals was conducted. While pelvis size was similar in both sexes, the average differences in pelvis shape reflected the well-documented pattern of sexual dimorphism. There was almost no overlap between females and males in shape space. Their analysis showed that pelvis size and shape were similarly associated with stature in both sexes. It was found that dimorphism in the height-to-width ratio of the pelvis and in the orientation of the iliac blades was largely allometric, whereas dimorphism in the subpubic angle and the relative size and distance of the acetabula was largely non-allometric. It was concluded that, in contrast to the overall pelvic proportions, sexual dimorphism in the birth-relevant pelvic dimensions was mainly of non-allometric origin and was presumably mediated via steroid hormone secretion during puberty. Anat Rec, 300:698-705, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/ar.23549

Cites

64 of 64 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The widening of the female pelvis during puberty retards the improvement in female physical performance, possibly driven by ovarian hormones rather than the absence of testosterone.

    “Additionally, whereas passing through puberty enhances male physical performance, the widening of the female pelvis during puberty, balancing the evolutionary demands of obstetrics and locomotion (136, 137), retards the improvement in female physical performance, possibly driven by ovarian hormones rather than the absence of testosterone (138, 139).”

    From Circulating Testosterone as the Hormonal Basis of Sex Differences in Athletic Performance (2018) · cites this paper as [137]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Fischer, B., & Mitteroecker, P.
Affiliations
  • University of Vienna (AT)
  • Department of Theoretical Biology University of Vienna Althanstrasse 14 Wien 1090 Austria
Corresponding author
Fischer, Barbara
ORCID
Fischer, Barbara
Venue
The Anatomical Record
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2017-03-15
Volume
300
Issue
4
Pages
698-705
ISSN
  • 1932-8486 (ISSN-L)
  • 1932-8494
DOI
10.1002/ar.23549
OpenAlex
W2620283594
Cited by
117
References
64
Citations by year
2026: 17 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2
FWCI
11.75
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • The Anatomical Record (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Austrian Science Fund (P 29397‐B27)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Geometry and Topology › Morphological variations and asymmetry
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
Keywords
human pelvis, sexual dimorphism, allometry, pelvic shape, height, subpubic angle, acetabulum, puberty, steroid hormones, childbirth, locomotion
MeSH terms
Adult, Female, Humans, Male, Pelvic Bones, Sex Characteristics, Sexual Maturation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review