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For children who were born with differences, before modern medicine, it was blamed on alleged Selkie heritage. For children born with "scaly" skin, they were unlikely to be children of Seklies but more commonly to have ichthypsis which is a genetic skin disorder that causes patches of skin to harden and appear scaly. For children born with a "seals head" was more likely to be due to anencephaly which is a a birth defect, where during the development in the embryo there is a major absence of the brain, skull and scalp.
The MacCodrum clan of the Outer Hebrides became known as the "MacCondrums of the seals" because they claimed to be descendants from a Selkie and fisherman union - this was also an explanation of their syndactyly (a growth fusing the skin between their fingers) which gave the appearance of flippers.
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