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Extraordinary Dwarfs | National Geographic


00:00:09the most common of the 200 or so types

00:00:13of dwarfism produces people who stand

00:00:16barely four feet above the ground

00:00:18fully grown a far rarer condition

00:00:22creates the smallest people on earth who

00:00:24rise just three feet in the air making

00:00:27other Dwarfs look like Giants I feel

00:00:29like I want to powder your nose and a

00:00:32new unexplained form of dwarfism has

00:00:35been discovered in just one person on

00:00:37the planet inside and out

00:00:42they are truly extraordinary humans here

00:00:53the Campbell family who live in Maryland

00:00:57is like any other American family except

00:01:00that they operate on a lower altitude

00:01:01than most you go show mama where you put

00:01:05your coat Susie Campbell is 46 years old

00:01:09I’m a stay-at-home mom domestic engineer

00:01:11but at 3 foot 10 inches she’s the size

00:01:14of a typical six year old she stands a

00:01:17foot and a half shorter than the average

00:01:18adult female even so Susie has fully

00:01:22adapted to life on a different scale I

00:01:26care about my hair color that kind of

00:01:28stuff but being a dwarf I’ve never had

00:01:31an issue with it never Susie like some

00:01:3470% of dwarfs has the type called

00:01:37a cond replace’ people with this

00:01:39condition are called a cons they are

00:01:41born average-sized but their skeletons

00:01:44take on their distinctive shapes as they

00:01:47grow older

00:01:47curiously they’re not smaller in every

00:01:51way

00:01:51for example Susie’s head is actually

00:01:53bigger than average and her torso is the

00:01:56same as a normal-sized person but it’s

00:01:58in their half-size thigh and upper arm

00:02:00bones where dwarfs part ways with

00:02:02average people the way in which a cons

00:02:05like Susie walk is due to another

00:02:07unusual skeletal feature their knees

00:02:10tend to bend outward

00:02:11and the more extreme the been the more

00:02:14pressure is applied to the joints the

00:02:18legs bow because in a cons outer shank

00:02:21bone the fibula grows longer than the

00:02:23inner bone the tibia

00:02:24this causes the legs to bend outward

00:02:29compared to average-sized adults their

00:02:32unique leg design forces a cons to walk

00:02:34in a distinctive way they walk with a

00:02:37waddle taking short steps and swaying

00:02:39from side to side the movement requires

00:02:43more energy per step than for an

00:02:45average-sized person walking or standing

00:02:48Susie’s height gives her a unique sense

00:02:51of scale when I am sitting in a chair

00:02:54and an average-sized person is sitting

00:02:56next to me we’re almost the same height

00:02:59the time of difference is when we stand

00:03:02up Suzy’s a Kandra pleasure is caused by

00:03:05a genetic mutation in a gene that comes

00:03:08from her father her parents are both

00:03:10average-sized as are her siblings and

00:03:13this is true of some 80% of a cons I’m

00:03:16the only one with dwarfism in my family

00:03:19both my brothers are over 6 feet the

00:03:23mutated gene responsible for causing a

00:03:25Kandra pleasure is located on the end of

00:03:28one of the 46 human chromosomes pick

00:03:31that to mama please chromosomes are long

00:03:34chains of DNA that look like twisted

00:03:37ladders a gene is a section of that

00:03:40ladder genes carry code for building the

00:03:42human body they are blueprints for how

00:03:45the body grows everything from the

00:03:47internal organs to a person’s physical

00:03:49appearance the ladders cross pieces are

00:03:53chemicals that make up those

00:03:55instructions in a Kandra pleasure one of

00:03:58these cross pieces happens to be the

00:04:00wrong chemical this mutation most

00:04:03dramatically affects the growth of bone

00:04:05particularly those in the arms and legs

00:04:08this genetic glitch interrupts the usual

00:04:11process that makes them grow