JASs Correspondence & Notes Journal of Anthropological Sciences Vol. 93 (2015), pp. 157-162 the JASs is published by the Istituto Italiano di Antropologia www.isita-org.com Body and head dimensions of adults in Sardinia (Italy) support different intensities of relative secular trends Emanuele Sanna 1 , Nicola Milia 1 , Patrizia Martella 1 & Maria Enrica Danubio 2 1) Università di Cagliari, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell’Ambiente, Sezione di Antropologia, 09042 Monserrato, Italy e-mail: nicola.milia82@gmail.com 2) Università dell’Aquila, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica, Sanità Pubblica, Scienze dell’Ambiente e della Vita, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy Due to the paucity of historical series for anthropometric variables other than height in males and females, there are very few analyses of secular trends of body and head dimensions. Moreover, there is also little anthropometric data regarding females. Therefore, in this latter case and due to the absence of any historical series, research on secular changes in head and body dimensions of adult women must make use of data from cross sectional samples consisting of different age groups (Sanna & Danubio, 2009) and also con- sider the contribution to secular height changes by analyzing the lengths of different body regions and secular changes in craniofacial dimensions. A topic of debate in the field of secular changes regards whether head shape is under- going a process of debrachycephalization or dolichocephalization (Buretic-Tomljanovic et al., 2007; Abu Dalou et al., 2008). The plastic- ity of the cranium and trunk-head height are considered less labile than height and especially lower limb lengths due to the impact of stress on growth (Pomeroy et al., 2012). The present paper aims to determine if there have been changes in anthropometric variables of body and head dimensions among different cohorts of Sardinian adult females and males (20.00-39.99 years) in order to evaluate the existence of an ongoing secular trend. The island of Sardinia is well-known for its long isolation. Its peculiar environmental and cultural background has resulted in particular genetic characteristics and microdifferentiation of its communities from the populations of con- tinental Europe and the circum-Mediterranean area (Vona & Calò, 2006). Moreover, biological continuity between past and modern populations has been recorded (D’Amore et al., 2010). This peculiar genetic and biodemographic history makes Sardinia an ideal place to study the impact of the environment on biological characters. The cross sectional sample consists of 412 Sardinian women measured in the period 2005- 2009 and 451 Sardinian men measured in 2003- 2008. They were born in the metropolitan area of Cagliari, southern Sardinia, of parents that are native to the same Sardinian area and are unrelated, apparently healthy and with no physi- cal defects or malformations. Around 20% of the Sardinian population lives in Cagliari, the capi- tal of Sardinia (a region of Italy), and in its sur- rounding metropolitan area. The female and male samples were divided into four 5-year age groups, the first with indi- viduals 20.00 to 24.99 years of age, the last with individuals 35.00 to 39.99 years of age. Informed consent was obtained from each participant in the survey following guidelines established by Italian laws L 31-12- 1996 n. 675 and DL 30-6-2003 n. 196 assuring privacy and informed consent in the collection and treat- ment of personal data. To assess possible demographic and socio- economic differences among the four female doi 10.4436/jass.93009