{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,21]],"date-time":"2025-08-21T16:19:13Z","timestamp":1755793153382,"version":"3.44.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"SMW Supporting Association","issue":"2526","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2012,6,17]],"date-time":"2012-06-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1339891200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Swiss Med Wkly"],"abstract":"<jats:p>During the  evolution of hominids, childhood and adolescence have been added as new  life-history phases. The transition from infancy to childhood (ICT) confers a  predictive adaptive response to energetic cues that strongly influence adult height,  whereas the transition from juvenility to adolescence establishes longevity and  the age of fertility. Evolutionary short-term adaptations to energy crises  apparently use epigenetic mechanisms that defer the ICT, culminating in short  stature. The study of hunter-gatherers gives us an indication of  pre-demographic transition populations and their life style that prevailed for  99% of homo\u2019s evolution. The secular trend for receding age of pubertal  development has been an adaptive response to positive environmental cues in  terms of energy balance. In natural fertility preindustrial societies with  limited access to modern contraception and health care, and whose economies are  primarily subsistence-based, most resources are invested as somatic capital in  human body size and fertility. Here we review results from databases for  natural fertility societies, with the information on life history, population  density, height and body mass, indices of adolescence and fertility. By using  them it was possible to verify the ICT model as well as to explore pubertal  parameters that are related to evolutionary fitness. They confirmed that body size  was adaptively smaller in hostile environments, and was tightly associated with  reproductive fitness.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4414\/smw.2012.13600","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2012,6,27]],"date-time":"2012-06-27T13:42:22Z","timestamp":1340804542000},"page":"w13600","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Lessons  from the life history of natural fertility societies on\u00a0child growth and  maturation"],"prefix":"10.57187","volume":"142","author":[{"given":"Aneta Monika","family":"Gawlik","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ze'ev","family":"Hochberg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"36756","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2012,6,17]]},"container-title":["Swiss Medical Weekly"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/smw.ch\/index.php\/smw\/article\/download\/1511\/1906","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/smw.ch\/index.php\/smw\/article\/download\/1511\/1907","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/smw.ch\/index.php\/smw\/article\/download\/1511\/1906","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,15]],"date-time":"2025-08-15T03:52:15Z","timestamp":1755229935000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/smw.ch\/index.php\/smw\/article\/view\/1511"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2012,6,17]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2526","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2012,6,18]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4414\/smw.2012.13600","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-3997"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1424-3997"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2012,6,17]]}}}