Is it true that there is a tribe in Africa where it is commonplace for people to be born with giant feet that have only two toes each?
How widespread is this deformity within this tribe, and what is the cause of it? Is the mutation equally distributed among males and female members?
Can the deformed toes be used to grasp objects as a lobster claw might operate? If so, would this mutation could confer some advantage in climbing trees?
Thanks.
It’s true, but I don’t know the answer to your other questions.
Not sure about giant, but amongst the Vadoma, ectrodactyly is quite common.
Yikes. I’ve never heard of ectrodactyly before. Pterodactyly would be awesome though.
Huh. Learn something new every day. I thought this couldn’t possibly be true. Ignorance Fought.
Former L.A. news anchor Bree Walker has ectrodactyly. I never noticed (though I watched ABC and she was on CBS, so I didn’t see her broadcasts often).
I too would have dismissed this out of hand.
I remember very vaguely reading (but I could be entirely wrong) that the gene causing ectrodactyly has some other genetical advantage, making the bearer less susceptible to disease. Or was that sickle-cell anemia?
Same here. I figured he’d misunderstood some camel-toe reference, although that would be a very strange method by which to climb trees.
Amazing. I would have sworn this was some old traveler’s tale from Herodotus or Mandeville, such as the African tribe who had no heads and whose face was located on their chest!
A better link than above:
Didn’t the ‘fugitive’ in “Brother From Another Planet” have this?
They don’t seem to be very flexible or usable for gripping.
I saw a picture of such a human many years ago.3 Years ago I saw a guy myself in The Democratic Republic of Congo.Absolutely normal with hands and feet devoloped as a birds feet
Checks date. Checks pulse. Pinches self. Passes out.
The hell!? That’s utterly fascinating. Cheers for bumping this thread I missed first time round Mr @gmail.com
Not really; they were just weird alien feet.
Is camel-toe the same as pussy-foot?
credit: Stephen Colbert
A year and six days after the OP, I can offer [this cite](http://comics.com/ripleys_believe_it_or_not/2010-08-29/" title=“Ripley’s Believe It or Not!”><img src=“http://c0389161.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/dyn/str_strip/333619.full.gif” border=“0” alt=“Ripley’s Believe It or Not!”).
I bet those people have trouble finding jobs. Everyone of them would claw their way to the top 
