• Question: Why do we have finger and toe nails?

    Asked by JeremyTheHamster to Andy, Duane, Giovanna, Katie on 19 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Duane Mellor

      Duane Mellor answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      These may be the remainder of claws from our evolution. Their main function is to protect the ends of our fingers and toes. They can also be used to manipulate things such as helping to peel an orange

    • Photo: Andrew Philp

      Andrew Philp answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      I would think that they offer protection to the fingers and toes and are useful for functions requiring extra grip like scratching, climbing, clawing etc…. Presumably before we had tools, we would have relied on our nails a lot more for these daily tasks.

Comments