Medical Discovery News: Tallest people live in the Balkans
There are tall people from most areas of the world, but near the Balkan Mountains in southeastern Europe is a distinct cluster of tall people.
www.reporternews.com
Medical Discovery News: Tallest people live in the Balkans
Drs. Norbert Herzog and David NieselMedical Discovery News
Where can you find the tallest men in the world? If you are a basketball fan, your answer would be to look at a college or professional basketball team. In the U.S., some of the tallest men can be found in the NBA. While there is an element of truth to this statement, recent scientific studies have investigated this more deeply to address the origins of the tallest people in the world.
On average, where do the tallest men in the world currently reside? Recent research suggests those from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Montenegro are on average the tallest, averaging 6’ 1” in height. At 7’5”, Slavko Vranes from Montenegro is one of the tallest NBA basketball players ever. There are tall people from most areas of the world, but the area around the Balkan Mountains in southeastern Europe represents a distinct cluster of tall people.
Genetics among these Balkan people point back to the Upper Paleolithic Gravettian culture. These people were big game hunters whose diet included mammoth, bison, horse and reindeer. These peoples lived 10,000 to 50,000 years ago at the time of the last glacial maximum. This early human group has been popularized in the “Earth’s Children” series by Jean Auel. The books are a fictional account of the lives of these ancient people based on extensive research by Auel. The books detail their hunting culture and mention their tall stature.
The Gravettian culture was indeed tall for the times – males averaged almost six feet in stature, while other ancient people averaged around five feet tall for males and four feet for females. The enhanced stature could be caused by an abundance of dietary protein from the large game they ate. In addition, the water sources near where these people lived had high calcium levels, which would support optimal bone growth. Good nutrition and calcium for bone growth could be key factors, but a genetic factor may be responsible.
Studies by Pavel Grasgruber at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic looked at more than 3,200 male Bosnian and Herzegovinian college students and found a genetic basis for their enhanced height. Many of these students share a haplogroup called I-M170, which has been linked with tall stature. A haplogroup is a group of genes that are inherited together and come from a common ancestor. The appearance of this haplogroup is associated with people in the Balkans, with the highest frequency observed in Bosnia-Herzegovina. To complete the genetic linkage, this haplogroup has been identified in the remains of a Gravettian ancestor who lived more than 30,000 years ago.
So, what determines a person’s height? Nutrition is a factor but the presence of the haplogroup I-M170 is also an important determining factor. If you were designing a baby with an advantage to become a basketball star, you might consider germline engineering to include this haplogroup. However, most everyone would agree that tall stature is not a guarantee of a prosperous basketball career. Let’s hope we do not have to consider this type of germline manipulation anytime soon.
Last edited:
