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Comment by ama729 | Hacker News Reader

> We still haven't reached the average height we were 40000 years ago[1]

Yes we do, there are a number of countries where the average height is close to 183 cm (average in your article, though there are no citations given for that fact): The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Serbia, ... In the Dinaric Alps, it even reach 186 cm, so in fact we ARE taller today[1].

But another article[2] with actual sources point to an 176.2 cm average, much smaller than today.

> but it came at a terrible price on human health

[Citation needed]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height#Average_height_ar...

[2] http://archaeology.about.com/od/earlymansites/a/cro_magnon.h...

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Re: health the linked article said that worse diet led to shorter height.

Here's a longer discussions (cited by 178):

http://www3.gettysburg.edu/~dperry/Class%20Readings%20Scanne...

Comparing a world wide average with a relatively tiny sub population is hardly reasonable. Otherwise we could just look at the average height of NBA players and say that's a reasonable proxy for the US average height.

Cro-magnon specifically refer to early human living in Europe, seems fair to make the comparison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cro-Magnon

Edit: Perhaps if you wanted to compare the average for all of Europe to estimates of European Early Modern Humans that might be reasonable, however that's not what you did.

They where discovered in Europe, but the current theory is they did not originate in Europe note the direct link from that Wikipedia page: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Cro-Magno...

"The term "Cro-Magnon" soon came to be used in a general sense to describe the oldest modern people in Europe. ... However, analyses based on more current data[8] concerning the migrations of early humans have contributed to a refined definition of this expression. Current scientific literature prefers the term "European Early Modern Humans" (or EEMH), instead of "Cro-Magnon". The oldest definitely dated EEMH specimen is the Grotta del Cavallo tooth dated in 2011 to at least 43,000 years old."

Note: "the term 'Cro-Magnon,' which has no formal taxonomic status" current evidence suggests they where effectively genetically identical to modern humans. Their diet was simply better leading to larger growth vs any significant DNA differences.

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