Turkey: Mutation causes siblings to walk on all fours

[Emu]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4782492.stm

Click the link and read the full article. It's got pictures and everything.

Family may provide evolution clue

Five siblings from Turkey who walk on all fours could provide science with an insight into human evolution, researchers have said.

The four sisters and one brother could yield clues to why our ancestors made the transition from four-legged to two-legged animals, says a UK expert.

But Professor Nicholas Humphrey rejects the idea that there is a "gene" for bipedalism, or upright walking.

A BBC documentary about the family will be shown on Friday 17 March.

Professor Humphrey, from the London School of Economics (LSE), says that our own species' transition to walking on two feet must have been a more complex process that involved many changes to the skeleton and to the human genetic make-up.

However, a German group says a genetic abnormality does seem to be involved in the siblings' gait.

Coordination problem

Three of the sisters and one brother have only ever walked on two hands and two feet, but another sister alternates between a bipedal and quadrupedal gait. Another brother walks on two feet all the time, but only with difficulty.

The siblings live with their parents and five other brothers and sisters. They were born with what looks like a form of brain damage.

MRI scans seem to show that they have a form of cerebellar ataxia, which affects balance and coordination.

However, scientists are divided on what caused them to revert to quadrupedalism (walking on all fours).

The method of locomotion used by the Turkish children and by our closest relatives chimpanzees and gorillas, differs in a crucial way, said Professor Humphrey.

While gorillas and chimpanzees walk on their knuckles, the Turkish siblings put their weight on the wrists, lifting their fingers off the ground.

[MetalMilitia]

I like how she wears shoes on her hands!

[Big Papa Goat]

Does economics mean something different in London that they get a professor from the school of economics to talk about genetics?

For serious though, more evidence that evolution is an incoherent theory. I mean, if people evolved from monkeys, then why would the evolve back into monkeys? It's as if evolution doesn't even know which direction it's going. Clearly, nonsensical.

Producer on the documentary Jemima Harrison said the programme's producers were moved by the family's "tremendous warmth and humanity".

good thing that was included

[Jixby Phillips]

I'd be very intrested in seeing that documentary

[AChimp]

Originally Posted by Big Papa Goat

For serious though, more evidence that evolution is an incoherent theory. I mean, if people evolved from monkeys, then why would the evolve back into monkeys? It's as if evolution doesn't even know which direction it's going. Clearly, nonsensical.

No one says all mutations are a good thing.

Please, learn about evolution before babbling about how wrong you think it is.

[Chojin]

It's a shame no-one intelligently designed Goat's post.

[Big Papa Goat]

[Spectre X]

Goat apparently also isn't aware of the fact that sometimes, just sometimes, old genes get reactivated.

Like those hairy kids on South America or whatever. A usually dormant gene was activated for some reason, so now they're all hairy.

[Emu]

It's not that they're "reactivated," it's that a gene that keeps the other one suppressed (I.E., a dormant gene) mutates in a manner that doesn't allow it to suppress the other one.

[Spectre X]

That's what I meant, yes, that's a better way to put it.

[executioneer]

i thought this thread was about four-legged turkeys when i clicked on it

[ArrowX]

I though it was about children who ate turkey and became 4 legged....I dont' read the title much I just see if theres a blue icon beside it

[pjalne]

Originally Posted by AChimp

No one says all mutations are a good thing.

Please, learn about evolution before babbling about how wrong you think it is.

Wait, he's joking, isn't he? I can't tell anymore.

[Chojin]

I presume that all people are idiots until proven otherwise ;<

[AChimp]

Same.

[Big Papa Goat]

I always post in evolution threads though