The Mystery of Jerry West's Gorilla Wingspan

[QUOTE=CavaliersFTW]Geographic ancestry. In nature "species" that live closer to hot climates/equilateral regions have longer limbs for thermoregulation, where as the colder the climate there is generally shorter limbs and extremities. This phenomena is just as true in humans as it is in say, wolves, deer, or any other wide ranging species this is observable in. Inuit peoples for example have relatively short stocky arms and legs, just like arctic wolves. It's just a helpful adaptation to the climate, you tend not to die young from frost bite wounds when your limbs are short and thick. Inversely, if you have a very long lean frame you tend not to die of heat exhaustion during the dry season in the open savanna. Over 10s of thousands of years a gradual shift in physical traits among populations happens. The differences in humans are subtle, an untrained eye wouldn't see it or care, but it's there. Relatively longer limbs in the 20th and 21st century have developed an unanticipated secondary benefit... they help in sports where long reach is beneficial, such as basketball.

Inb4 someone claims this is racist and unscientific.[/QUOTE]

I don't disagree with the anthro/bio here... but what about Indians? (From India) or Hispanics, Middle Easterners, or other Southeast Asians where the climate is just as hot as Africa? You'd think they'd have very long limbs as well.

[QUOTE=oarabbus]I don't disagree with the anthro/bio here... but what about Indians? (From India) or Hispanics, Middle Easterners, or other Southeast Asians where the climate is just as hot as Africa? You'd think they'd have very long limbs as well.[/QUOTE]
Might have something to do with recent ice age effecting those regions and thus recent ancestry with established cold climate populations. Also, all non-Africans have 2-4% Neanderthal DNA and some peoples have an additional mixture of up to 6% with another established cold climate species called Denisovans. This means that all humans that journeyed out of Africa and survived had a couple affairs with some short stocky limbed Neanderthals. I think though there just has not have been enough time that has passed for say, native people of Mexico to have long limb ratios reflected in their population particularly after their ancestors had only just crossed over Siberia to Alaska in the middle of the ice age (14,000 years ago) to get there. Where as people of Africa have been in a relatively warm stable climate for a few hundred thousand years.