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Why do humans have finger/toenails? (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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They seem like one more bodily detail to tend to without much benefit, and sometimes more detriment (breaking a nail or scratching oneself up, ouch!).

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

They allow us to more precisely manipulate and feel with our fingertips by providing a hard surface to work against for the otherwise fleshy fingertips, and can themselves be used to pick at things smaller than fleshy nubs would be able to. That's not to say fleshy things can't be super precise and manipulable, but evolution doesn't work that way and we already have these grasping hands and not tiny worm fingers or something