Puberty as a life history transition.
BACKGROUND
James Tanner's landmark publication, Growth at Adolescence, was not only the first and most comprehensive treatise on the subject of human pubertal development of its time, its core insights have held up remarkably well over time.


METHODS
This review connects Tanner's contributions to contemporary understanding of puberty as a process fundamentally driven by neuroendocrine maturation. It introduces the concepts of the 'hour-glass of puberty' and 'somatic strategy' as heuristic constructs. The 'hour-glass of puberty' describes the converging pathways of information flow influencing the timing of the neuroendocrine events of puberty and its ramifying consequences throughout the body. Somatic strategy refers to the pattern of sex-specific, adult body morphology that develops at puberty as the individual undergoes a life history transition from juvenile to adult.
Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. pellison@fas.harvard.edu
Peter T
PT
Ellison
Meredith W
MW
Reiches
Heather
H
Shattuck-Faegre
Alicia
A
Breakey
Martina
M
Konecna
Samuel
S
Urlacher
Victoria
V
Wobber
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000378:metabolism; D007987:Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000502:physiology; D020738:Leptin / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000378:metabolism; D011627:Puberty / Q000502:physiology*; D012098:Reproduction / Q000502:physiology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology; D055815:Young Adult
D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones; D020738:Leptin; D009479:Neuropeptides; D007987:Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone