Turkish family that walks on all fours baffles scientists

A Turkish family’s ability to walk on all fours has baffled scientists. The members of the Ulas family use their palms, instead of knuckles like apes, for the bear crawl.

The family first came into the limelight via a scientific paper, followed by a 2006 BBC documentary titled The Family That Walks on All Fours. Their incredible story has resurfaced online -- and is gaining a lot of traction.

Professor Nicholas Humphrey, who is an evolutionary psychologist from the London School of Economics, discovered that out of the 18 children in the Ulas family, six — four girls and two boys — were born with this remarkable trait.

Professor Humphrey told 60 Minutes Australia, "I never expected that even under the most extraordinary scientific fantasy, modern human beings could return to an animal state." The professor also mentioned that one of the six siblings had died.

He added, "Of course, it's language and all other sorts of things too, but it's terribly important to our sense of ourselves as being different from others in the animal kingdom. These people cross that boundary.”

The Ulas family, in the BBC documentary, was described as “the missing link between man and ape”. The documentary also stated the family’s “untold significance for every one of us” and further claimed that they “shouldn’t exist.”

Professor Humphrey slammed the theory in the BBC documentary. He called it “deeply insulting” as well as “scientifically irresponsible.”

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