BBC: Turkish family may provide clue to evolution
Güncelleme Tarihi:
A documentary about a Turkish family who walk on all fours will be shown on the BBC March 17. A UK expert has said that the family may give researchers some clues as to how we evolved into an upright walking species. However, Professor Nicholas Humphrey disagrees with this sentiment and rejects that there is a gene for bipedalism or upright walking.
Humphrey of the London School of Economics (LSE) believes 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 the human genetic make-up, according to the BBC report.
The BBC report states that two of the sisters and one brother have only ever walked on two hands and two feet, but another sister and brother can occasionally walk on two feet for a short time.
From the report:
The five siblings live with their parents and 13 other brothers and sisters and 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.