Determinants of human physical development have long been a central question of physical anthropology. This dissertation improvement proposal intends to assess the use of bilateral asymmetries as a measure of pre-natal stress. In order to investigate the relationship of stress to asymmetry, the student will study cohorts of full-term infants of appropriate for age weights and compare the level of asymmetry exhibited in that group with the level seen in full-term growth retarded newborns. Additionally, the parents of all infants will be measured for the same suite of bilateral traits. This will allow estimation of genetic versus environment effects. The researchers hypothesize that the normal weight infants will exhibit less bilateral asymmetry. Additional, all newborns will be followed over one year and measured at defined intervals. This will allow estimates of longitudinal changes in bilateral symmetry, a poorly documented aspect of human biological variability.
