By worldscience, Section News Posted on Wed Feb 22, 2006 at 08:29:26 AM PST
An editor of a noted scientific journal says he has discovered a genetic defect that seems to set back the clock on human evolution by more than a million years.
Its victims walk on all fours and mouth a primitive language, the scientist reported. He added that the syndrome may literally undo eons of human evolution, and thus reflect with some accuracy what our ape-like ancestors were like.
The researcher, Uner Tan of Cukurova University Medical School in Adana, Turkey, has posted an online video clip of an affected woman walking on all fours, her face blurred.
The idea that evolution can run backward isn't new; some scientists say there have been confirmed cases of it in animals. But it's also a controversial subject, and considered hard to prove in any given case.
Tan, at any rate, argued that this could be a case of it, so the mutation--known to run in one Turkish family--might offer scientists an unprecedented glimpse into human origins.
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The paper appears in the March issue of the International Journal of
Neuroscience, where Tan sits on the editorial board. He also named the disorder after himself: Unertan syndrome.
An editor of a noted scientific journal says he has discovered a genetic defect that seems to set back the clock on human evolution by more than a million years.
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