From ancient times in human society there are canons of beauty. If the biometric and visual indicators do not match, then such a person is considered ugly and sometimes even disgusting. Although disgust in some cases is of great interest in society and among scientists. People with Juner Tan syndrome are precisely those people who have serious abnormalities and are of great interest to science.
Features
Juner Tan's Syndrome (SJT) is manifested in the fact that a person with a similar pathology moves on the wheels. The name of the disease is given in honor of the biologist who discovered the pathology (2005). Although information about such people has long appeared, there are even references in very old chronicles and notes of doctors.
At first, it was believed that the reason for this behavior is a kind of rollback from human evolution towards ancestors. However, long studies have proven that this is not the case at all.
The gait of people with SUT was studied and compared with the gait of chimpanzees, gorillas, and other animals. It turned out that each animal has certain features of movement, and sick people did not adopt or repeat these features.
As a result, scientists came to the conclusion that the syndrome is a consequence of an acute chromosomal disorder. In addition to the ability to walk directly, such people have certain cognitive abnormalities, that is, they have a decrease in mental performance and memory.
Biologist Tan
Juner Tan, a Turkish neuroscientist born in 1937, is also known as an evolutionary biologist. Today, he is retired and teaches at several universities.
It was this person who attracted the attention of the public to people who rode around, so the disease was given the name Juner Tan syndrome. He discovered his first family in Turkey, in the countryside, in the south of the country. In a family of 19 people, five members moved on all fours. Later he discovered several more people with a similar pathology. All of them had mental retardation, including even upright family members. The people discovered were all Kurds, from one village, where close relatives are often found.
Based on the research, a documentary of the BBC2 was shot back in 2006, entitled “Walking on all fours.”
How do they move
In the process of movement, people with Juner Tan's syndrome practically do not bend their knees. Therefore, their pelvis is always high above the ground. Hands when moving straight. The emphasis is on the palms, the fingers of which are slightly raised up.
They move almost like animals, rearranging both their left leg and right arm and vice versa. The spine during movement is fully erected.
Initially, the biologist assumed that there are only 15 such people in the world, but there is information about other cases from other regions. Due to the recent discovery of Juner Tan's syndrome, no one has yet counted the frequency of occurrence, and the exact number of people traveling on all fours has not been established.
General personality characteristics with SUT
After scanning the brain of sick people, it was found that it, in comparison with the brain of a normal person, has a simplified structure. Scientists noticed that a person with SUT does not even have whole brain regions, and the vocabulary is very limited, they can only count up to 10. They even have a kind of their own speech, in which they communicate with each other.
All attempts to get people with Juner Tan's syndrome to walk straight were unsuccessful. They immediately lose their balance and become karachki.
Lifestyle
Such people live very primitively. They do not work, and women in general mostly sit at home in order to avoid ridicule from bipedal people. Men collect bottles and other recycled materials. At the same time, they can keep a string bag in their teeth or hide bottles under a shirt.
Women sit at home, can knit and embroider, as, for example, sister Ulas from the first family, which was discovered by a biologist. Even the very coarse skin on the hands and fingers allows her to do homework.
Despite the limited mind, they do not go naked, they always dress. We can say that it was not possible to find a return to the instincts and life of animals in such families. Which once again confirms the theory of genetic failure, and not about evolutionary rollback.
Marriage unions in such families are concluded with the same, that is, with people who move on all fours.
If we talk about the most popular Turkish family, which was discovered by a biologist, then one of the brothers is quite entrepreneurial, he even goes to other villages and contacts people, that is, he does not suffer from a strong weakness of mind.
Attitude in society
Juner Tan even put forward the theory that, perhaps, people stopped walking directly due to lack of education or are the beginning of a line of new hominids that are just starting their history of development in the world. The question remains open to this day. After all, it is believed that in the presence of defects, especially at the genetic level, animals die. However, now this is not about animals, but about people who nevertheless exist in society, where no one oppresses them. In a sense, they even have certain privileges. Nobody is trying to kill them, although conflicts in the place of residence still happen.
If we assume that such people were in the Middle Ages, especially in the era of the Inquisition, then they would most likely have been burned at the stake after prolonged torture.
Or is it atavism?
Compared to chimpanzees and gorillas, four-legged people have a completely different gait. In addition to the fact that their legs are in a straight position, they still fully rest on the palm. Monkeys do not do this, they only focus on the palm of their hand. Also, people with the syndrome have to press the back of their head to the maximum to look forward, not down, that is, the cervical vertebra has a huge load. Chimpanzees have no such problem, since they bend their legs and the pelvis is not above the head when walking.
A similar gait, as in people with Juner Tan's syndrome (SUT), has baboons and some other species of monkeys. But it is unlikely that the genes of these animals woke up in people with the syndrome. It is not possible to find out due to the fact that not a single infant with a similar pathology has yet been studied.
Genetic reasons
To date, a recognized cause of Juner Tan's syndrome is a genetic disorder.
It is believed that pathology occurs against the background of a malfunction in the chromosomes, starting from the 17th, more precisely, the VLDLR gene, which should be present on the 9th chromosome, is missing. And this is precisely what caused the cerebellum to malfunction, which is directly associated with the mental retardation of sick people. The tonsils of the cerebellum are also responsible for the normal balance of the body and coordination of movements.
In light of this, people with pathology cannot even be put in a wheelchair; they independently adapt to their condition, getting on all fours.
Turkish family
In 2006, the public was shocked by information about people with Juner Tan syndrome; photos were posted in newspapers and on the Internet. This unique family lives in Hatay province (Turkey). This information amused some, but people with disabilities simply have no other choice; they cannot move differently.
Of the 19 family members, five have always moved and move on all fours (two sisters and a brother). Two more family members sometimes fall into position on the fours, but often go straight. They all have a back and neck are always in a bent position. The “four-legged” family members have huge corns on their hands, although this does not affect the mobility of the hands and fingers. Initially, they decided that the children were born in a completely normal family, and defects appeared later due to disturbances in the brain.
In the same year, the Air Force makes a documentary. In the tape, it is narrated that Juner Tan's syndrome is an amazing example of the rarest human mutation.
At the household level, it is rather difficult for family members moving on four limbs to live. There is a certain hostility on the part of the inhabitants of the village, they are being bullied. The remaining members of the family are trying to protect them from ridicule and insult. Despite the fact that humanity is already flying into space and plunging under water, there are still people who find it difficult to explain that the discrepancy with accepted physiological norms is not always associated with the actions of the disabled person himself. It just happened that there was a certain malfunction in development, independent in no way from the person himself.
At the time of the film, it was believed that these people were victims of "reverse evolution." Although a parallel is clearly drawn between how primates and the main characters of the film walk. And they do it in completely different ways.
Treatment
To date, treatment for Juner Tan syndrome is not provided. Scientists are only busy developing a theory that will generally understand why such a genetic malfunction occurs. Therefore, members of the Ulas family are unlikely to become ordinary upright people.
Other examples
Not so long ago in Canada and the United States, too, there was information about people who move on four limbs. Most of them were members of the Protestant-Hatterite sect. However, after some time, these people were trained to walk on two legs. Therefore, scientists from these countries are sure that members of the Ulas family could not be taught to walk normally only because no one tried to do this in childhood. But on whose side the truth is, we can only find out after some time.
In the meantime, the “four-legged” people just live, rejoice in the onset of each day and the fact that their relatives are nearby, alive and well. And this should be learned by every ordinary person, since we often complain about crooked legs or find other flaws, forgetting that there are people who dream of being normal, like everyone else.