Ulas family

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The Ulas family of 19 is from rural southern Turkey. Five of the family members (except for another, who has died) walk on all fours with their feet and the palms of their hands in what is called a "bear crawl". [1] [2] Their quadrupedal gait has never been reported in anatomically intact adult humans. The gait is different from the knuckle-walking quadrupedal gait of apes. In 2006, the family was the subject of a documentary: The Family That Walks On All Fours .

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The affected siblings have a form of non-progressive congenital cerebellar ataxia. The brain impairments include cerebellar hypoplasia, mild cerebral cortex atrophy and a reduced corpus callosum. They are also mildly intellectually disabled and have problems in balancing on two legs. However, they do not show the poor coordination of hands, speech, and eye movements often found in cerebellar ataxia. The four sisters can do needlework. They all share a recessive mutation on chromosome 17p. [3]

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Üner Tan of Çukurova University Medical School in Adana, Turkey, has said that they show characteristics of the primate ancestors of Homo sapiens , before the move to bipedalism. He calls the process "backward evolution" and he named the condition Uner Tan syndrome. [4]

However, Nicholas Humphrey, John Skoyles, and Roger Keynes have argued that their gait is due to two rare phenomena coming together. [5] First, instead of initially crawling as infants on their knees, they started off learning to move around with a "bear crawl" on their feet. [5] Second, due to their congenital brain impairment, they found balancing on two legs difficult. [5] Because of this, their motor development was channeled into turning their bear crawl into a substitute for bipedality. [5]

Defne Aruoba is a Turkish psychologist who was involved with the care and research of the Ulas family. Because of her experience working with the Ulas family, she planned to establish the Ulas Foundation, which will bridge the gap between social inequalities and reach out to other individuals and families in need of rehabilitation. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

Ataxia is a neurological sign consisting of lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movements that can include gait abnormality, speech changes, and abnormalities in eye movements, that indicates dysfunction of parts of the nervous system that coordinate movement, such as the cerebellum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bipedalism</span> Terrestrial locomotion using two limbs

Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where a tetrapod moves by means of its two rear limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped, meaning 'two feet'. Types of bipedal movement include walking or running and hopping.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quadrupedalism</span> Form of locomotion using four limbs

Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion where four limbs are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four limbs is said to be a quadruped. Quadruped animals are found among both vertebrates and invertebrates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aniridia</span> Absence of the iris, usually involving both eyes

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knuckle-walking</span> Form of quadrupedal walking using the knuckles

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The Family That Walks on All Fours is a BBC Two documentary that explored the science and the story of five individuals in the Ulas family, a Turkish family in Southeastern Turkey that walk with a previously unreported quadruped gait.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cerebellar abiotrophy</span> Genetic condition in animals

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Uner Tan was a Turkish neuroscientist and evolutionary biologist. He is best known for his discovery and study of the human quadrupedal condition he named the Uner Tan syndrome. He taught at Çukurova University until his retirement in 2004 and had previously taught at several other institutions.

Uner Tan syndrome (UTS) is a syndrome that was discovered by the Turkish evolutionary biologist Üner Tan. People affected by UTS walk with a quadrupedal locomotion and often have severe learning disabilities. Tan postulated that this is an example of "reverse evolution" (atavism). The proposed syndrome was featured in the 2006 BBC2 documentary The Family That Walks On All Fours.

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John Skoyles is a neuroscientist and evolutionary psychologist. He studied philosophy of science at the London School of Economics and then did MRC funded research upon neuroscience and dyslexia at University College London.

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Non-progressive congenital ataxia (NPCA) is a non-progressive form of cerebellar ataxia which can occur with or without cerebellar hypoplasia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PMM2 deficiency</span> Medical condition

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">COACH syndrome</span> Medical condition

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References

  1. ↑ "Family Walks on All Fours, May Offer Evolution Insight, Experts Say". National Geographic News March 8, 2006. Archived from the original on May 24, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Science May Finally Explain Why This Family Walks On All Fours". Huffington Post . 17 July 2014. Archived from the original on 2016-05-09.
  3. ↑ Türkmen S, Demirhan O, Hoffmann K, et al. (May 2006). "Cerebellar hypoplasia and quadrupedal locomotion in humans as a recessive trait mapping to chromosome 17p". J. Med. Genet. 43 (5): 461–4. doi:10.1136/jmg.2005.040030. PMC   2564522 . PMID   16371500.
  4. ↑ Tan U (March 2006). "A new syndrome with quadrupedal gait, primitive speech, and severe mental retardation as a live model for human evolution" (PDF). Int. J. Neurosci. 116 (3): 361–9. doi:10.1080/00207450500455330. PMID   16484061. S2CID   6482447. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 18, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Humphrey N.; Keynes R.; Skoyles J.R. (2005). "Hand-walkers : five siblings who never stood up" (PDF). Discussion Paper. London, UK: Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2006-10-11.
  6. ↑ "NOVA | Family That Walks on All Fours | the Family and Me | PBS". PBS . Archived from the original on 2012-01-11. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
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