• Question: Why do we have fingernails on our fingers?

    Asked by courtneyj to Laura, Lily, Mark, Paul, Sarah on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Lily Asquith

      Lily Asquith answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Before there were humans, there was a humanish/chimpish creature that lived in th trees used its claws to cling onto the branches and open seeds and things like that. Some of those creatures came down from the trees and ventured out onto the planes, hunting animals and in fact behaving rather differently. They didn’t really need claws any more, and claws were getting in the way of them using tools. The ones that had smaller claws did better, lived longer, and were more likely to find a mate and reproduce than those that had large claws. After many generations of the ones with the smaller claws having babies and the ones with larger claws not having babies, all of these creatures had very small claws, ie fingernails, and they were early humans.

    • Photo: Mark Roberts

      Mark Roberts answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      I really don’t know – perhaps it was to help protect our fingers whilst they are doing things.

      They are probably a remnant from having claws etc – but the fact they are still passed on suggests that either they have a role or there is no down side to having them

    • Photo: Sarah Bardsley

      Sarah Bardsley answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      To paint and make pretty?

      Or because we used to have claws millions of years ago? They are certainly useful. I once had my right hand shut in a car door and lost a couple of my nails. eeek! The great thing about the human body is that it can regrow them though. So I have them back but at the time it felt wierd using my nailless fingers! I couldn;t do anything – like scratch, peel a lable off something, type or use a pen properly.

    • Photo: Laura Maliszewski

      Laura Maliszewski answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      All mammals have something like finger nails. In most mammals they’re claws.
      Our fingernails are an evolutionary left over from back when we too needed claws to eat.

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