For the first time, researchers have developed a model to estimate how much energy the original colonizers of New Zealand expended to maintain their body temperatures on the cold, harrowing ocean journey from Southeast Asia. Results showed that people making the first voyages from Tahiti to New Zealand in sailing canoes would expend 3.3 to 4.8 times more energy on thermoregulation - the technical term for maintaining body temperature - than those making a trip of similar length to Hawaii. The ocean route to New Zealand required much more energy for thermoregulation because it went through harsher and colder conditions than the one to Hawaii, said Alvaro Montenegro , lead author of the study and associate professor of geography at The Ohio State University .

https://www.miragenews.com/how-larger-body-sizes-helped-colonizers-of-new-1045753/

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