Size and Shape of Body Parts Predict Health, Fertility, Personality

Top athletes have longer ring fingers, and women with larger hips have more intelligent children. Roger Dobson explains how the size and shape of body parts can speak volumes about our health, fertility, and even our personality traits

Forget good feet, it's the hands that are the mark of a good runner. Successful sprinters and endurance athletes are more likely to have long ring fingers than the also-rans, according to new research – based on the running speeds and times of young men.

Athletes with long ring fingers in relation to their index fingers also had superior aerobic capacity.

According to the researchers, it's all down to the ratio between the ring and index fingers being a marker of exposure to testosterone in the womb. Read more