“…In contrast, only 300 men should have survived in El Hierro, an island in which shellfishing surely was a major economic activity. Consequently, in contrast with the high prevalence of osteoporosis found in Gran Canaria, individuals from El Hierro showed a well preserved bone mass (Gonzá lez-Reimers et al, 2004), perhaps due to a better nutritional status, and a more favourable relationship between available food and population needs. Indeed, the subdesertic climate of the Islands leads to irregular and scarce rainfall, and vicinity to the Sahara desert and Sahel facilitated the arrival from locust plagues which almost certainly devastated the fields (repeatedly documented since short after Spanish conquest, Cola Benítez, 1996) and provoked widespread malnutrition, especially if food supply strongly relied on agriculture.…”