Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
To cite this Article Tan, Üner(2008)'A Special Case of Anencephaly in an Early-Born Baby with an Exagerated Prognastic Face:
Further Example for Human Devolution',International Journal of Neuroscience,118:6,751 — 760
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/00207450701668004
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207450701668004
This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or
systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or
distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents
will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses
should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss,
actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly
or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
International Journal of Neuroscience, 118:751–760, 2008
Copyright C 2008 Informa Healthcare USA, Inc.
ÜNER TAN
Çukurova University
Faculty of Sciences
Adana, Turkey
A 7-month-old baby was born in a village near Iskenderun (Turkey) where “Unertan
Syndrome” with quadrupedality and primitive cognitive abilities was discovered.
The clinical diagnosis was anencephaly. However, his head did not show the classical
symptoms of anencephaly because it was covered with bony structures. The baby
has an ape-like, prognasthic head with low-set ears and flapped ear flaps. The other
parts of the body were similar to humans with broad shoulders and a short neck.
This may be a further example of human devolution, which was first reported by
Tan (2005, 2006a,b,c). A genetic defect affecting the head development including
brain may be responsible for the reappearance of the ape-like head in a human
being. This human devolution, or evolution in reverse, suggests that the same gene
or gene-pool as well as the interactions between genes may be responsible for the
transition from our ancestors into human beings with regard to an orthognasthic
head, and brain development.
INTRODUCTION
The present work deals with an early-born baby with a clinical diagnosis of
anencephaly, which is a congenital defect affecting the formation of the brain
and the skull bones. The brain often lacks part or all of the cerebrum. There
is no bony covering over the back of the head. Anencephaly occurs in about
1,000 to 2,000 births in the United States each year. The incidence of the
anencephalic births between 1898 and 1991 has been reported to be 0.52% in
Istanbul Cerrahpasa Medical School (see Tasdelen et al., 1996).
The well-known main symptoms of anencephaly are absence of bony
covering over the back of the head along with missing bones around the front
and sides of the head. The present case did, however, not fit to the main
symptoms of anencephaly. From the inspection of the head, a very small brain
(microcephaly) was apparent especially in the parieto-occipital regions of the
skull, which was entirely covered with bony structures.
Interestingly, this baby was born with an ape-like head exhibiting an
Downloaded By: [TÜBTAK EKUAL] At: 07:08 13 April 2009
METHOD
The baby was born as he was seven months old in a small village near
Iskenderun, near another small village where the individuals exhibiting the
“Unertan Syndrome” were born.
The baby had an unusual facial appearance. The shoulder were larger than
normal. The body weight was 1,100 g and the body length was 35 cm. This is
HUMAN DEVOLUTION 753
RESULTS
The male baby with an ape-like head and a human-like body is illustrated in
Figure 1. Except the head, the body seems to be normal (Figure 1). The baby
Downloaded By: [TÜBTAK EKUAL] At: 07:08 13 April 2009
has exophtalmic eyes, broad shoulders, short neck, and thick arms. The jaw and
face are markedly protruded (prognathism; see the picture in the middle) like
in apes, and in most animals. The head is flattened, especially in the posterior
regions, and entirely covered with bony structures with long hairs. The back of
the baby seemed to be quite normal, except the short and thick neck (Figure 1).
There were also no anomalies in the spine of the baby.
Most of the human beings have markedly decreased facial projection
(orthognasthic face). However, there are also some humans exhibiting projected
jaw and face, although they may not be as exaggerated as the baby presented in
the present work, and in apes. Figure 2 presents an example of African children
with prognasthic facial appearances, which was published by Hrdlicka in 1928.
A marked prognathism is typical in many non-human primates. Figure 3
shows the facial prognathism in baby monkeys and a squirrel, similar to the
exaggerated prognathism in the half-ape and half-human baby, contrary to the
markedly decreased facial projection in normal human beings.
A comparison of prognasthic primate skulls in chronologiacl order is
illustrated in Figure 4. As visualized in Figure 4, the brain size increases,
whereas facial and dentognathic size decreases during phylogenesis. That is,
there is an inverse trends in absolute cranio-facial size during chronological
evolution of hominidea. There is a gradual shift in craniofacial structures from
a ancestral pattern with a strong facial prognathism to a facial retraction in
modern human beings (see Polanski & Franciscus, 2006).
DISCUSSION
A 7-month-old premature baby with an ape-like head is presented for the first
time in the scientific literature. According to the gynecologist’s diagnosis, it
754 Ü. TAN
Downloaded By: [TÜBTAK EKUAL] At: 07:08 13 April 2009
Figure 1. Pictures from the half-ape, half-human baby: whole body (above), half body (middle),
back (below).
HUMAN DEVOLUTION 755
Figure 3. Markedly increased facial projections in monkeys (above) and a squirrel (below).
The most interesting feature of the baby presented in the present work
is the ape-like (prognasthic) appearance of his face with low-set ears and
flapped ear flaps (see Figure 1). Otherwise, his body, legs, and arms seemed
to be normal except broad shoulders and relatively strong and long arms. The
HUMAN DEVOLUTION 757
Downloaded By: [TÜBTAK EKUAL] At: 07:08 13 April 2009
Figure 4. Human ancestors with marked projections of facial and dentognathic appearances,
compared to markedly decreased facial projection in homo sapiens.
758 Ü. TAN
shrank over the course of evolution to allow greater brain size, that is, an
evolution from prognathism to orthognathism. Now one sees the reverse, that
is, from orthognatism to prognathism. The traces of prognathism can indeed
be sporadically observed in some human beings in less developed forms.
Because the most neural tube defects including anencephaly may be attributed
to chromosome anomalies (see Lynch, 2005), it is plausible to suggest that a
causative gene or gene-pool might have caused the proposed devolution in the
half-ape baby.
It is plausible that the same gene or gene pool responsible from the
development of the ape-like head might also be responsible for the transition
from a prognasthic face in apes to an orthognastic face in homo sapiens.
This hypothesis is consistent with the theories of punctuated evolution, being
long periods of very little evolution interrupted by periods of relatively rapid
changes, in contrast to Darwin’s gradual evolution, being a gradual rate of
evolution. The punctuated evolution may occur if beneficial mutations sweep
successively through the population (Elena et al., 1996). Some hotspots were
indeed found in human genome for acquiring duplicated DNA sequences—but
only at specific time-points of evolution. Accordingly, long periods of genomic
stasis may be punctuated by relatively short episodes of duplicate activity
(Minghetti & Dugaiczyk, 1993). Mezhzherin (1997) has analyzed the genetic
differentiation of taxa from three Holarctic and three Afrotropical phyla of
small mammals, and found that (i) the distributions of fixed gene differences
are relatively independent; (ii) the speciation process is discontinuous, being
consistent with punctuated evolution.
Similar to the experimental studies on the evolution in reverse, Hrdlicka
(1928) has first reported children running on all fours, exhibiting prognasthic
faces (see Figure 2). Nearly 70 years later, Tan has discovered adult individuals
HUMAN DEVOLUTION 759
REFERENCES
Boyles, A. L., Billups, A. V., Deak, K. L., Siegel, D. G., Mehltretter, L., Slifer, S. H.,
Bassuk, A. G., Kessler, J. A., Reed, M. C., Nijhout, H. F., George, T. M., Enterline,
D. S., Gilbert, J. R., & Speer, M. C., (2006). Neural tube defects and folate
pathway genes: family-based association tests of gene-gene and gene-environment
interactions. Environmental Health Perspectives, 114, 1547–1552.
Chen, C. P., Chern, S. R., Lee, C. C., Chen, W. L., & Wang, W. (2001). Prenatal
diagnosis of mosaic ring chromosome 13 with anencephaly. Prenatal Diagnosis,
21, 102–195.
Detrait, E. R., George, T. M., Etchevers, H. C., Gilbert, J. R., Vekemans, M., & Speer,
M. C. (2005). Human neural tube defects: Developmental biology, epidemiology,
and genetics. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 27, 515–524.
Elena, S. F., Cooper, V. S., & Lenski, R. E. (1996). Punctuated evolution caused by
selection of rare beneficial mutations. Science, 272, 1802–1804.
Hahm, G. K., Barth, R., Schauer, G. M., Reiss, R., & Opitz, J. M. (1999). Trisomy 2p
syndrome: A fetus with anencephaly and postaxial polydactyly. American Journal
of Medical Genetics, 87, 45–48.
Hrdlicka, A. (1928). Children running on all fours. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology, 11, 149–185.
Koukoura, O., Sifakis, S., Stratoudakis, G., Mantas, N., Kaminopetros, P., & Koumantis,
E. (2006). A case report of recurrent on encephaly and literature review. Clinical
and Experimental Obstetrics & Gynecology, 33, 185–189.
Lemire, R. J. (1988). Neural tube defects. JAMA, 259, 558–562.
760 Ü. TAN
Lomholt, J. F., Fisher-Hanen, B., Keeling, J. W., Reintoft, I., & Kjaer, I. (2004).
Subclassification of anencephalic human fetuses according to morphology of the
posterior cranial fossa. Pediatric and Developmental Pathology, 7, 601–606.
Lynch, S. A. (2005). Non-multifactorial neural tube defects. American Journal of
Medical Genetics, Part C, 135C, 69–76.
Mezhzherin, S. V. (1997). Gradualism or puntualism: Data on genetic differentiation of
small mammals from the Holarctic region. Genetika, 33, 518–523.
Minghetti, P. P., & Dugaiczyk, A. (1993). The emergence of new DNA repeats and the
divergence of primates. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, U S A, 90,
1872–1876.
Mitchell, L. E. (2005). Epidemiology of neural tube defects. American Journal of
Medical Genetics, 135C, 88–94.
Polanski, J. M., & Franciscus, R. G. (2006). Patterns of craniofacial integration in extant
Downloaded By: [TÜBTAK EKUAL] At: 07:08 13 April 2009
homo, pan, and gorilla. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 131, 38–49.
Porter, M. L., & Crandall, K. A. (2003). Lost along the way: The significance of
evolution in reverse. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 18, 541–547.
Rushton, J. P., & Ankney, C. D. (2000). Size matters: A review and new analysis of
racial differences in cranial capacity and intelligence that refute Kamin and Omari.
Personality and Individual Differences, 29, 591–620.
Tan, Ü. (2005). Unertan Syndrome; qaudrupedality, primitive language, and severe men-
tal retardation; a new theory on the evolution of human mind. NeuroQuantology,
4, 250–255.
Tan, Ü. (2006a). A new syndrome with quadrupedal gait, primitive speech, and severe
mental retardation as a live model for human evolution. International Journal of
Neuroscience, 116, 361–369.
Tan, Ü. (2006b). Evidence for “Unertan Syndrome” and the evolution of the human
mind. International Journal of Neuroscience, 116, 763–774.
Tan, Ü. (2006c). Evidence for “Uner Tan Syndrome” as a human model for reverse
evolution. International Journal of Neuroscience, 116, 1433–1441.
Tasdelen, E., Arvas, A., Perk, Y., & Ilter, O. (1996). An evaluation of the cases of neural
tube defects. Cerrapasa Journal of Medicine, 27, 59–62.
Tvrdik, P., & Capecchi, M. R. (2006). Reversal of Hox1 gene subfunctionalization in
the mouse. Developmental Cell, 11, 239–250.
Wahlsten, D. (1999). Single-gene influence on brain and behavior. Annual Review of
Psychology, 50, 599–624.