Posted on 03/11/2006 9:10:15 PM PST by sagar
FIVE brothers and sisters who can only walk naturally on all fours are being hailed as a unique insight into human evolution, after being found in a remote corner of rural Turkey. Scientists believe that the family may provide invaluable information on how Man evolved from a four-legged hominid to develop the ability to walk on two feet more than three million years ago. A genetic abnormality, which may prevent the siblings, aged 18 to 34, from walking upright, has been identified. The discovery of the Kurdish family in southern Turkey last July has triggered a fierce debate. Two daughters and a son have only ever walked on two palms and two feet, with their extended legs, while another daughter and son occasionally manage a form of two-footed walking. The five can stand up, but only for a short time, with both knees and head flexed. Some researchers claim that genetic faults have caused the siblings to regress in a form of “backward evolution”. Other scientists argue more strongly that their genes have triggered brain damage that has allowed them to develop the unique form of movement.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
** Ping **
Are they Muslims?
UM... wouldnt this be... DE-evolution? BTW that is where DEVO got their name, they said" we believe humans are going to de evolve back into apes" Seeing how things are shaping up for the democrats.... he may be right?!!!
Is this another story about the democratic leadership.
Yeah, but can they roll over and play dead?
It's a DU chapter meeting.
"I just *know* I dropped it around here somewhere. Keep looking, everyone! We're bound to find it sooner or later."
You couldn't find it because the previous 5 or 6 postings over the last week have been pulled.
Turkish F.O.D. walk.
This has got to be incredibly uncomfortable!
Weekly World News material.
Inbreeding.
A monkey in an Israeli zoo has started walking exclusively on its hindlegs after nearly being killed by a stomach virus. Monkeys usually alternate between walking on all fours and walking upright, but this monkey is walking upright all the time, like a human. So far the only explanation zoo officials have is brain damage, though the monkey has otherwise returned to normal.
FMCDH(BITS)
Urban legend hoax, we are bipedal, that includes terrorists.
FMCDH(BITS)
I wanna be there when they enter their first Starbucks.
Also, their first airport security screening should be VERY interesting.
Question: Do the guys raise a leg when they p..? Splash control?
And speaking of airport restrooms.... I need to get a camera phone for just such an occasion.
Nothing on it in Snopes.
lol
How sweet would it be to know that your family is indeed the missing link?
"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. Their mother and father, who are themselves closely related, are believed to have passed down a unique combination of genes resulting in the behaviour."
I'm supposing the other 13 children are normal.
So they are the mentally retarded and birth defected offspring of cousins. And tell me how this is proof that our ancestors walked on all fours?
"And tell me how this is proof that our ancestors walked on all fours?"
I just quoted the paragraph as I thought it added needed detail the the excerpt. It seems far less likely that this is some kind of hoax when one knows that these poor folks have normal siblings. I also always wish to remind folks how much breeding is going on in the non-Western world.
I'm not trying to be contentious, but I didn't mean to imply any support for the concept that these unfortuneates prove anything about evolution.
"So they are the mentally retarded and birth defected offspring of cousins. And tell me how this is proof that our ancestors walked on all fours?"
This is not a "proof." It just demonstrates that genetic mutation can cause otherwise bidedal humans to walk on four legs. Genetic mutations like these are key to evolution. Perhaps some kind of genetic mutation caused apes to walk upright millions of years ago. As mutations accumulate over millions of years, who knows what new traits appear and stablize in a population.
I understand that, to anti-evolutionists, earth isn't even million years old. A moot point trying to argue further. But, to those who don't believe humans were made from soil and dropped into some kind of eutopia where everything was happy and vegan, things like this offer insights into the past.
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