Scientists are stunned to find a family that walks on all fours: "What we are seeing..."
Human beings unlike apes are able to walk straight on two feet thanks to years of evolution. Modern humans only walk on all fours when they’re infants. But an extraordinary revelation in a documentary in 2006 made by the BBC showed an entire family in Turkey, where everyone from kids to grownups walks on all fours.
The Ulas family had 18 children, six of who were found to be walking on all fours, and one of them had passed away as per a report in Good. This act baffled scientific minds around the globe since something like this was simply never meant to happen. Many believed at the time that these five members of the Ulas family could provide valuable information about how humans evolved from apes and what were the various stages of that evolution.
An earlier report in the BBC puts forth some valid theories about why they walked on all fours. According to Professor Nicholas Humphrey of the London School of Economics, genetic differences aren’t a reason for this behavior. Four out of the five living siblings had always walked on all fours. However, one of them alternated between all fours and two feet. Another one of their siblings, separate from these five, walked on two feet but with great difficulty.
MRI scans done on the Ulas family members revealed a form of cerebellar ataxia, which affects balance and coordination. That should be a good enough explanation for their condition but scientists have remained divided over that conclusion. However, a research team at Liverpool University later discovered that their skeletal structure is not the same as modern human beings. It was closer to the skeletal structure of apes.
Humphrey also noted that as infants, the children of this family weren’t taught or encouraged to stand up and balance themselves on two feet. This could have also affected the way their skeletal structures evolved as they grew older. “I think it’s possible that what we are seeing in this family is something that does correspond to a time when we didn’t walk like chimpanzees but was an important step between coming down from the trees and becoming fully bipedal,” the London School of Economics professor explained.
A condition like this is incredibly rare but it is not limited to a single family. According to an article in The Open Neurology Journal, such a condition is brought forth by what is called the Uner Tan Syndrome. It is a condition that is caused by a rare genetic disorder, which is what Humphrey was opposed to. Not only does it cause a person to walk on all fours habitually, but it also brings intellectual disability and limited language abilities. In simpler terms, it seems like they evolved backward and ended up with the disorder.
The article also mentioned other families with similar characteristics, the first discovered in a small village near Iskenderun and then others in small villages near Gaziantep and Canakkale. A common factor in all these cases is the location. People with this rare disease have only been found in the remote villages of Turkey.