人类学家威廉·Z·里普利（英语：William Z. Ripley）进一步指出，阿尔卑斯人种的鼻子为中鼻型（mesorrine），而他们的头发通常是栗色的，他们的枕骨略呈圆形。学者认为阿尔卑斯人种的皮肤色素沉着是“中间白色”，一种介于肤色较浅的北欧人种和肤色较深的地中海人种之间的颜色。尽管所谓的阿尔卑斯人种数量众多，但阿尔卑斯人种的特征并没有像北欧人种和地中海人种那样被广泛讨论。他们通常被描述为“久坐不动”，坚实的农民血统，欧洲人口的可靠支柱，但领导力或创造力并不突出。麦迪逊·格兰特坚持他们“本质上是农民的性格”。[4]
根据人类学家威廉·Z·里普利和卡尔顿·库恩（英语：Carleton S. Coon）的说法，阿尔卑斯人种在中欧和西亚/中亚的部分地区占据主导地位。里普利认为阿尔卑斯人种起源于亚洲，并随着他们在欧洲建立的农业文明的出现和扩张而向西方传播。通过迁移到中欧，阿尔卑斯分离了早期欧洲种群的北部和南部分支，为北欧人种和地中海人种的独立演化创造了条件。
The Saturday Evening Post , Vol. 196 , No. 42 ( April 19 , 1924 ) （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） by Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Composite France: The Decline of the Nordics : "Then the monarchy itself decayed, and after that came the revolution. Although political in form, the French Revolution had a racial aspect far more important than in usually realized. It was largely a revolt of the Alpine and Mediterranean elements against the Nordic ruling class. The revolutionary leaders openly boasted that they were avenging themselves on the descendants of the Nordic Franks who had dominated them since the fall of Rome. As a revolutionary orator shouted in a memorable speech against the aristocrats, "Let us send them back to their German marshes whence they came!" Eyewitness of the Reign of Terror have left us vivid pictures of how dark-haired mob surging around the guillotine yelled with special delight whenever the executioner would hold up the head of some French lady, swinging the head by its long blond tresses for the amusement of the crowd.
The revolution marks, indeed, a turning point in the racial history of France. It started that rapid decline of the Nordic element which is still in full swing. Not only was the Nordic aristocracy hopelessly broken but the Nordic strain in the general population was weeded out faster than ever. The revolution caused a series of terrible wars, which were continued under Napoleon. For twenty-three years France was fighting most of Europe. Millions of Frenchman perished on the battlefield, and as usual the Nordics were the worst sufferers. It has been shown that at the end of this war period the average stature of French army recruits had been lowered nearly four inches. This is striking proof of how the tall Nordics had been weeded out of the population in favor of the shorter Alpine and Mediterranean elements.
Although a clear majority of the French population is today alpine in race—55 per cent Alpines as against 30 per cent Nordics and 15 per cent Mediterraneans—the minority elements still play a greater part in the national life than their more numbers would indicate. This is particularly true in certain fields. Nordics contribute most to science and invention, while in literature and art honors are shared between the Nordics and Mediterraneans. On the other hand, politics and government are failing more and more into Alpine hands, as is natural for a majority under democratic political institutions. In fact the general tone of French national life, is becoming increasingly Alpine in character. This unquestionably makes for solidity. Yet many French writers deplore the lack of individual initiative and the reliance upon the state which the average Frenchman displays.
Both the virtues and the shortcomings of the Alpine temperament come out most clearly in the French peasantry, which is mainly Alpine in blood. Hard-working, thrifty, solid, but limited in imaginative vision and creative intelligence, the French peasant remains what he has always been. The difference lies not in himself but in the fact that modern political and economic conditions have made him a greater power in the nation then was formerly the case. The French peasantry was never so prosperous as it is today. Furthermore, it is the most numerous occupational group in the nation. We must remember that France never industrialized herself like England and Germany, where the bulk of the population now lives in cities and towns. In France a majority of the population still lives in the country. According to the last census, of France's 39,000,000 inhabitants only 18,000,000 live under urban conditions, while 21,000,000 live on the land."
The Racial Elements of European History （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） by Hans F.K. Günther （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Chapter IX Part Three: The Denordization of the Peoples of Romance Speech: "The Alpine race has spread very fast, one might say astoundingly fast, in France in the nineteenth century. It is in the nineteenth century that the rise in the index seems to have been especially rapid, and this movement does not stop, for wherever living persons have been measured at intervals of some years, the latest figures give the highest means. It is just the same with the colouring, and this goes on at such a speed, that not only the oldest folk, but we ourselves can observe the evident dwindling of fair colouring. The Frenchman of today is anthropologically quite other than he of the Middle Ages, or even of the Renaissance.
The losses by France in the Great War (3.4 per cent. of the population was killed) mean, as in the other peoples who fought in this war, a terrible contra-selection of the best blood. That in this contra-selection the Nordic race among those races represented in France is particularly involved, can be gathered also from the fact that the French high command, according to the report of the American General, Pershing, always put the northern French regiments (who had relatively most Nordic blood) in the very front, after the other regiments had, it would seem, too often failed. Since 1919 France has been seeking to make up her losses in a way that is highly dangerous from a racial and eugenic, standpoint -- that is to say, by drawing to herself the most heterogeneous immigrants from Europe, mostly Eastern Europe, but also immigrants from outside Europe."
Coon, Carleton Stevens. Chapter VIII. Introduction to the Study of the Living. The Races Of Europe. Osmania University, Digital Library Of India. The Macmillan Company. 1939: 291.
The Races of Europe （The Races of Europe 页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） by Carleton Stevens Coon. Appendices: Appendix II: Glossary: Reduced Type: "A racial type which has grown smaller than its ancestral prototype and has consequently changed in certain proportions as a result of this size reduction."
