The average body size of humans has fluctuated significantly over the last million years and is linked to a changing climate, according to research published Thursday. A team of researchers led by the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and the University of Tübingen in Germany gathered measurements of brain and body size for more than 300 fossils from the Homo genus or family, to which modern-day humans — Homo sapiens — belong. The team used this data, combined with a reconstruction of the Earth’s regional climates from the last million years, and calculated the climate that would have been experienced by each fossil when it was a living human. Researchers found that climate — particularly temperature — has been the main driver of changes in body size for the past million years. Colder, harsher climates were linked to larger bodies, while warmer climates were linked to smaller bodies, the […]