Ear-lobe anthropometric signs do not relate to longevity. Ear length relates to age

Dear Editor, During the last 30 years we are collecting various photographs which showed the face of persons who died at various ages during their lifetime. We so collected more than 235 photographs. After strict selection of these photographs, so that we could see well the ear and the ear-lobe we chose 57 of them and studied the following parameters: the vertical length of the ear till the lobe, the vertical length of the earlobe, the total ear length, the width of the ear-lobe and the area of the lobe, in order to relate them to longevity. All persons were Caucasians from western countries. No persons from Mediterranean countries were included. The above persons were separated into 2 Groups: Group A, 25 persons who lived 38-70 years, and Group B, 32 persons who lived 89-106 years. In both Groups it was more than obvious after calculating the Mean and the Standard Deviation (M±SD) that no relation existed between all above factos and longevity in both groups. In order to confirm the above result we separated both Groups into Subgroups. Subgroup A1 included 9 cases who lived 38-59 years and Subgroup A2 included 16 cases who lived 60-70 years. Subgroup B1 included 25 cases who died at 89-99 years of age and Subgroup B2 included 7 cases who lived 99-106 years. All above parameters were still unrelated to longevity. We noticed that the length of the total ear although unrelated to longevity was related to age till the age of 99 years. In Subgroups A1 and A2 the M±SD was 1.20±0.41cm and 1.48±0.42cm, respectively and in Subgroups B1 and B2 the M±SD of the total ear length was 2.28±0.47cm and 2.32±0.54cm, respectively (Table). The small number of persons studied was a handicap. There seemed to be a relation between total ear length and age till 99 years (Figure). It is known that the ear like all other parts of our body enlarges up to the end of our maturity and later by age. This finding in the present paper covers a wider range of ages as compared to other related papers, i.e. covers the ages of 38-106 years and so seems to be as for this point prototype. Another paper studied ear length up to the age of 41 years.