Humans found walking on all fours

[mrhnau]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060307/sc_afp/turkeyhealthscience

The discovery of a Turkish family that walks on all fours could aid research into the evolution of humans.

Researchers believe the five brothers and sisters, who can walk naturally only on all fours, may provide new information on how humans evolved from four-legged hominids to walk upright.

Kind of interesting! I might have to watch the documentary

 

[Flatlander]

Here's a pic from the London Times Online.

 

[Bigshadow]

The siblings, who live with their parents and 13 other brothers and sisters, are mentally retarded, as a result of a form of cerebellar ataxia — an underdevelopment of the brain similar to that in cystic fibrosis. Their mother and father, who are themselves closely related, are believed to have passed down a unique combination of genes resulting in the behaviour. While Professor Humphrey said that cultural influences in their upbringing may have played a crucial role, with parental tolerance allowing the children to keep to quadrupedal walking, others believe that the cause is more purely genetic.

Chance it is an anomoly that is to be expected?

Now I am thinking I hear banjo music... hey wait... Ever see the movie Deliverance?

 

[mrhnau]

Now I am thinking I hear banjo music... hey wait... Ever see the movie Deliverance?

Actually, I was hearing more 2001 music hehe

anamoly? It just seems evolution going a bit backwards. It will be interesting if they have children. Perhaps a new branch of backwards evolution? I guess evolution, from an outside perspective, has no "backward"ness, just motion :idunno:

 

[Bigshadow]

anamoly?

I was referring to the problems that can occur with in-breeding.

 

[Jeff Boler]

And they were all located in the "Blue States".

 

[bushidomartialarts]

weird. i bet a couple are just wizards at some form of animal style kung-fu.

 

[7starmantis]

Yeah, I'm not sure the study of evolution can be progressed with the study of inbreeding genetic disabilities. Grantit evolution could be argued to be just that (mutations) but we are looking at specific causation here.

7sm

 

[bushidomartialarts]

it's not unlike some of the weird species you get on islands.

i forget the term, but there's a special name for the phenomenon. you get a closed gene pool (on an island, frinstance) and the species mutate and split quickly and more outrageously due to the inbreeding and homogenous environment.

in this case, you get some sort of off the path community. in that community, you have a family with a mental handicap. this makes them unpopular choices to marry, so they marry each other. closed gene pool. this goes on for a couple of generation and whammo, island speciation (not the actual term, but it'll do)

 

[Kenpodoc]

This is likely a scam. It certainly won't teach us anything about evolutin.

Jeff

 

[mrhnau]

This is likely a scam. It certainly won't teach us anything about evolutin.

Jeff

from what I've read, they hypothesized that humans could no longer function fully solely on all fours. So, it might give some degree of insight into why this is not the case.... even if not, tracking down the genetics that caused the problem will give some insight...

either way, should prove interesting...

 

[Cryozombie]

Yeah, they discovered Hobbits on some island too. (Just saw the special on Discovery or National Geographic channel)

Now I know, its not evoltuion, its the magic of the one ring at work.

 

[Sarah]

Yeah, they discovered Hobbits on some island too. (Just saw the special on Discovery or National Geographic channel)

Now I know, its not evoltuion, its the magic of the one ring at work.

Yeah they live in New Zealand....all those creatures are real ya know!!

 

[terryl965]

Ok I must just be stupid but I have been seeing adults walking on all four since my college days, well mainly nights:cheers: :drink2tha :drinkbeer
Terry

 

[Kenpodoc]

Look at the picture, it's not genetics it's posing in a silly manner for a picture. At least the college students walking on all fours have a good reason.

Jeff

 

[shesulsa]

My trainer used to make me do those ....

 

[still learning]

Hello, Shoes? ....sold in fours? or do we need two pairs..different sizes and shapes? .............Aloha

 

[mrhnau]

Look at the picture, it's not genetics it's posing in a silly manner for a picture. At least the college students walking on all fours have a good reason.

Jeff

posing? possibly. I could assume that position for a short while myself. I'll be watching the documentary.

what -is- interesting is that two of them can't walk upright. don't find alot of college students unable to walk after sobbering up (unless they get in an accident )

so, instead of just looking at a picture, lets find out why they can't walk upright, if indeed it is not a fraud. do they have a structural problem? muscular? balance? a learned behavior?

geneticist often use diseased individuals to track down problems and the purpose of certain genes. I don't see why this one would be any different. granted, this is going to be more than a single locus issue, but studying the genetics will prove interesting... do they have sets of genes with more similarity to other quadrapeds than humans? what are the major differences? comparitive genomics is a fast growing field, and this should provide some fertile soil for the field. granted, this won't reveal the whole view of evolution, but perhaps just one small part, and for a scientist, that still have merit.

 

[Bigshadow]

How is this much different than the ferral children? These children were pretty much raised by animals. For instance, there was a girl in the Ukraine who was forced by her parents to live outside in the dog pen with the dogs since about the age of 2 or 3 and she learned to behave like the dogs. At 13 years old, she walked on all fours, had the mannerisms of the dogs and fit in with them regarding her behavior. She was literally one of the pack. She moved on all fours very well. This was not genetic, this was a learned behavior.

I believe this story is just a sensational story, nothing more.