Chemosynthesis, I believe. Bacteria at the bottom of the ocean use this process for food.
I believe it is a combination of polygenic inheritance and environmental factors. Several genes control the height in humans, giving an overall normal distribution. Environmental factors on the other hand such as nutrition smooth out the curve. It is therefore important to note that Human height is a quantitative, or metric trait, that is, a characteristic that is measured in quantity, and is controlled by multiple genes and environmental factors.
