The StuSie

Quadrupedia: The Who?

This just in - a family in Turkey has come to the world's attention because of their proclivity for quadrupedalism, meaning of course that they walk on all fours. I'm totally not making this up. Apparently there's a potential genetic reason for their idiosyncratically über-old-school locomotion. The people in question are five siblings who use their palms like heels, which is apparently different enough from how chimps walk to allow them to retain the use of their fine motor skills. Chimps are notoriously bad at crochet, but the women in this family can darn a sock in no time, which is probably a good thing, since they're going to need twice as many as most people. There's video of one of the women here.

"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."

I don't know how one goes about flexing one's head, but naturally this has scientists everywhere getting all puffed up about the possible consequences of a bipedal gene (that is presumably defective in this case) and a whole host of other crack-pot theories, including some from our friends over at the Max Planck Institute. The family will feature in a documentary on BBC Two on Friday March 17 at 21:00 GMT, but since that Friday also happens to be St. Paddy's Day, it's unlikely anyone who reads this blog will catch it.

posted by Der Staubsauger @ 22:27