Turkey - Ahead of the Curve on Human-Animal Hybrids

Instead of using genetic engineering, though, they did it the old-fashioned way: inbreeding. Yahoo News reports that researchers have discovered a family of human quadrupeds somewhere in southern Turkey. (Sadly, no pictures to accompany this post.) The five children in the family walk on all fours and are incapable of walking upright. They are also mentally retarded and have some other genetic abnormalities. Researchers think they may be expressing genetic traits our ancestors possessed before our upright stature became widespread.

No disrespect to the mother and father of this particular family, though. I'm sure they have a hard life, made harder by caring for their children, who are undoubtedly unable to function independently in the world. Inbreeding is a time-honored tradition (think European monarchs), and has given us many spectacular mutations, like the white skin and ability to digest milk proteins in adulthood that most Caucasions possess. What would we do without cheese? So I won't knock them for that. It's interesting, though, how much of our heritage remains hidden in the genome, ready to leap back into service given the right, um, pairing.