A new measure of growth efficiency: skull base height

Skull base height increases significantly with better nutrition and health conditions, as seen in comparing 163 nineteenth to twentieth century dissecting-room skeletons (Terry Collection) with 237 modern American middle-class adults (forensic and willed skeletons). The increase parallels the change in pelvic inlet depth index, known to respond sensitively to nutrition, and in stature, and is over six times greater than the general skull size change. Skull base height (porion-basion) is easy to measure with depth gauge and sliding caliper, or by subtraction, and is in adult a sensitive indicator of childhood growth stress.