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Judging by the ancient fossils, the early ancestors of man closely related sexual relationships are quite common. The remains of the human skull serve as evidence of this fact. about 100 thousand years old, which archaeologists found near a place called Hudzhiao in the north of China. Researchers The remains claim that the owner of this skull was discovered rare birth defects that are likely to have arisen as a result of incest.
This skull is just one of many other examples of the remains. ancient people who also had congenital malformations. Research Leader, Anthropologist, University of Washington Eric Trinhouse said that these small tribes are certain lived apart, so their relatives were developed communication. A hole was found in the upper part of the examined skull. it indicates a disease that is known as “increased parietal opening “- this symptom is similar to the modern eponymous an illness resulting from a rare genetic mutation. Genetic defects interfere with the normal development of bones, because of which the human embryo does not close the cranium. On the today, such mutations are rare – in one of 25 thousand babies. The person who owned the found skull, survived to middle age, and this means that the defect was not deadly. Skull deformity sometimes leads to disturbances cognitive ability, however, in this case, these consequences were minimal. Discovered skulls of people who lived in Pleistocene (from 2.5 million to 12 thousand years ago), indicate an unusually large number of such genetic defects. TO besides, scientists sometimes met such deviations in the skeletons of Homo Erectus who lived in the early Stone Age. As Eric said Trinhouse, such a spread of deviations in ancient people confirms the theory that in that period of human evolution people lived in very small groups and therefore welcomed family relationships. However scientists noted that it is still not clear how long this has been going on, and it is unlikely whether it will be possible to find out.
Translation by Sergey Vasilenkov
