(May 26, 2016 at 10:10 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: Of course, the trachea/esophagus thing isn't all that's not quite right with our transition from quadruped to biped. Our ancestors' guts hung downwards, ours need to be supported by muscle, not always reliable, leading to hernias. Our backbones went from an arched horizontal 'pole' great for climbing and moving in trees to an 'S' shape that leaves us prone to backaches and back injuries, because an 'S' isn't a good shape for supporting weight. We have too many bones in our feet, and flexible feet are great for climbers, but make us prone to fallen arches, ankle sprains, Achilles tendonitis, shin splints, and broken ankles. Ostriches have a much better foot design for bipedalism, but then, their ancestors were bipedal many millions of years before ours were.
These folks might just be 'the next step' in human foot evolution, though their reproductive isolation both preserves their unusual feet and prevents the gene from becoming more widespread.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadoma#Ectrodactyly
So you think that if we all hunched over, we wouldn't have back problems, because that is what our backs are meant to handle? Guts hanging down would still need to be supported by muscle too.
And they are losing genetic information which I believe definitely does happen. I do not think that our species would acquire this trait if we were allowed to breed with them.