Uner Tan (''

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

'': Üner Tan) (May 1, 1937 – February 6, 2022) was a Turkish

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, Biological neural network, n ...

and

evolutionary biologist Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life for ...

. He is best known for his discovery and study of the human

quadrupedal Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion where four limbs are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four limbs is said to be a quadruped (from Latin ''quattuor' ...

condition he named the

Uner Tan syndrome Uner Tan syndrome (UTS) is a syndrome that was discovered by the Turkish evolutionary biologist Üner Tan. People affected by UTS walk with a quadrupedal locomotion and often have severe learning disabilities. Tan postulated that this is an exampl ...

. He taught at

Çukurova University Çukurova University ( tr, Çukurova Üniversitesi) is a public university in Adana, Turkey. The university has sixteen faculties, three colleges, seven vocational colleges, three institutes and twenty six research and application centers. ...

until his retirement in 2004 and had previously taught at several other institutions.

Biography

Tan was born in

Ünye Ünye (''Oinòe'', Οἰνόη in ancient Greek) is a large town and district of Ordu Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey, 76 km west of the city of Ordu. In 2009 it had 74,806 inhabitants. İrfan Akar is the President of the Chamber of ...

, Turkey. He graduated from secondary school in

Çorum Çorum () (Medieval Greek: Ευχάνεια, romanized: Euchaneia) is a northern Anatolian city that is the capital of the Çorum Province of Turkey. Çorum is located inland in the central Black Sea Region of Turkey, and is approximately from ...

and started college at

Ege University Ege University or Aegean University ( tr, Ege Üniversitesi) is a public research university in Bornova, İzmir. It was founded in 1955 with the faculties of Medicine and Agriculture. It is the first university to start courses in İzmir and the ...

, at the Faculty of Medicine, in 1956. He continued at

Göttingen University Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The orig ...

and graduated from there and the

Max-Planck Institute The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (german: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. ...

in 1966. He returned to Turkey at 1969 and worked at

Hacettepe University Hacettepe University is a leading state university in Ankara, Turkey. It was established on 8 July 1967. It is ranked first among the Turkish universities by URAP in 2021. The university has two main campuses. The first campus is in the old to ...

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, and

Atatürk University Atatürk University ( tr, Atatürk Üniversitesi) is a land-grant university established in 1957 in Erzurum, Turkey. The university consists of 23 faculties, 18 colleges, 8 institutes and 30 research centers. Atatürk University's main campus i ...

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. The city uses the double-headed eagle as ...

Black Sea Technical University Karadeniz Technical University ( tr, Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi or KTÜ) is a public research university in Trabzon, in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. Established in 1955, it is the fourth oldest university in Turkey. Karadeniz Technical U ...

Trabzon Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the Bl ...

and Çukurova University in

Adana Adana (; ; ) is a major city in southern Turkey. It is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The administrative seat of Adana Province, Adana province, it has a population of 2.26 million. Adana lies in the heart ...

. Tan retired in 2004, and died in February 2022, at the age of 84.

Uner Tan syndrome

According to Tan, persons affected by this syndrome walk with a

locomotion and are afflicted with " primitive" speech and severe

mental retardation Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability in the United Kingdom and formerly mental retardation,Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010). is a generalized neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by signific ...

; he postulated that this is an example of

backward evolution Devolution, de-evolution, or backward evolution (not to be confused with dysgenics) is the notion that species can revert to supposedly more primitive forms over time. The concept relates to the idea that evolution has a purpose (teleology) and ...

. He proposed the syndrome after studying the

Ulas family The Ulas family of 19 is from rural southern Turkey. Five of the family (except for another, who has died) walk on all fours with their feet and the palms of their hands in what is called a "bear crawl". Their quadrupedal gait has never been report ...

of rural southern Turkey, five of whom have these symptoms. The proposed syndrome was featured in the 2006

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

documentary '' The Family That Walks On All Fours''. After his study of the Ulas family, Tan went on to diagnose Uner Tan syndrome in several other families.

Neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, Biological neural network, n ...

and

evolutionary psychologist Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to the ancestral problems they evolv ...

Roger Keynes Roger John Keynes FMedSci (; born 25 February 1951) is a British medical scientist. He is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and a professor within the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience. Keynes is the third of four son ...

, psychologist

Nicholas Humphrey Nicholas Keynes Humphrey (born 27 March 1943) is an English neuropsychologist based in Cambridge, known for his work on evolution of primate intelligence and consciousness. He studied mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey in Rwanda; he was the fi ...

and medical scientist John Skoyles have argued that the gait of these individuals is due to two rare phenomena coming together, not atavism. First, instead of initially crawling as

infant An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

s on their

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

s, they started off

learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machine learning, machines ...

to move around with a "bear crawl" on their feet. Second, due to their

congenital A birth defect, also known as a congenital disorder, is an abnormal condition that is present at birth regardless of its cause. Birth defects may result in disabilities that may be physical, intellectual, or developmental. The disabilities can ...

brain impairment, they found balancing on two

leg A leg is a weight-bearing and animal locomotion, locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single ...

s difficult. Because of this, their

motor development A motor neuron (or motoneuron or efferent neuron) is a neuron whose cell body is located in the motor cortex, brainstem or the spinal cord, and whose axon (fiber) projects to the spinal cord or outside of the spinal cord to directly or indirectly ...

was channeled into turning their bear crawl into a substitute for

bipedalism Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning 'two feet' (from Latin ''bis'' 'double' a ...

. In the BBC documentary '' The Family That Walks On All Fours'', Nicholas Humphrey refers to Uner Tan's "devolutionary" description of the Ulas family as "scientifically irresponsible."

References

External links

Tan autobiography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tan, Uner 1937 births 2022 deaths Evolutionary biologists People from Ünye Turkish scientists

Biography

Uner Tan syndrome

See also

References

External links