Some enjoyable reading for a giant from Montenegro Les Alpes Dinariques un peuple de sujets de grande taille Jean Claude Pineau a Paul Delamarche b Stipe Bozinovic c a Dynamique de l volution humaine CNRS UPR 2147 44 rue de l Amiral Mouchez 75014 Paris France b Laboratoire de physiologie et de biom canique de l exercice musculaire UFR APS universit Rennes 2 av Charles Tillon CS 24 414 35044 Rennes cedex France c Institute of Education Branch Office Split Croatie Re u le 12 septembre 2004 accept apr s r vision le 18 juillet 2005 Disponible sur Internet le 1er septembre 2005 Pr sent par Yves Coppens R sum Cette tude porte sur l actualisation de la stature moyenne en Europe Contrairement aux i d es re ues il appara t selon notre enqu te r alis e sur 2705 gar ons et 2842 filles g s de 17 ans que les adolescents des Alpes Dinariques sont en moyenne les plus grands d Europe Avec une stature moyenne de 185 6 cm ils se situent devant les N erlandais qui mesurent 184 cm C est surtout la densit de sujets de tr s grande taille qui conf re la r gion des Alpes Dinariques sa caract ristique avec 28 de sujets de plus de 190 cm alors que les N erlandais n en comptent que 20 et la France 1 5 Chez les filles bien que l on ne dispose pas de beaucoup d informations les adolescentes dinariques avec une stature moyenne de 171 cm se situent juste derri re les N erlandaises Pour citer cet article J C Pineau et al C R Biologies 328 2005 2005 Publi par Elsevier SAS pour l Acad mie des sciences Abstract Average height of adolescents in the Dinaric Alps This study contributes to an update of average heights among European populations Our investigation covering 2705 boys and 2842 girls aged 17 years shows that contrary to the general belief adolescents of the Dinaric Alps are on average the tallest in Europe With an average height of 185 6 cm they are taller than Dutch adolescents 184 cm on average Above all the density of very tall subjects appears to be characteristic of the Dinaric Alps since 28 measure 190 cm or more in height as opposed to only 20 in Holland and 1 5 in France Although our information is not complete adolescent girls in the Dinaric Alps with an average height of 171 cm come a close second to girls in Holland To cite this article J C Pineau et al C R Biologies 328 2005 2005 Publi par Elsevier SAS pour l Acad mie des sciences Mots cl s Stature Accroissement s culaire Pays europ ens Adolescents Keywords Height Secular trend European country Adolescent Auteur correspondant Adresse e mail jc pineau wanadoo fr J C Pineau 1631 0691 see front matter 2005 Publi par Elsevier SAS pour l Acad mie des sciences doi 10 1016 j crvi 2005 07 004 842 J C Pineau et al C R Biologies 328 2005 841 846 Abridged English version The diachronic increase in the stature of European peoples has always been of interest to anthropologists Since the 1960s and until now Scandinavians of both sexes had been the tallest Europeans followed in descending order by the Dutch Danes Norwegians and Swedes With the recent enlargement of the European Community it has become necessary to establish which European country has the tallest adolescents on average In 1968 Montenegrin teenagers with an average height of 176 9 cm had already been found to be the tallest followed by Norwegians at 173 6 cm Since then there has been a significant increase in average heights in all European countries especially Holland where the average height among adolescents increased the fastest 8 cm in 40 years to reach 184 cm in 2000 However given the lack of recent data on average heights among inhabitants of the Dinaric Alps we carried out a study to update the information available The study was conducted among 17 year olds 2705 boys and 2844 girls in schools in various towns in Herzegovina and central Dalmatia Boys unlike girls are still growing in height at 17 years of age Different longitudinal studies have shown that boys on average grow by at least one centimetre between the ages of 17 and 20 We have therefore added one centimetre to all average heights for boys As in other European countries height is influenced by the social environment in our study lyc e pupils were found to be 2 3 cm taller on average than pupils in vocational schools Taking these variations into account as well as observed differences between coastal and inland communities we found that