Amazing book. I recommend reading it if you’re interested in evolution.
Comment on Isn't it weird that we have exactly five fingers and five toes on each hand and foot.
Atrabiliousaurus@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The wikipedia article Polydactyly in stem-tetrapods has some explanations on how we ended up with 5 fingers and toes.
The gist of it is that tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrate animals) evolved from a fish similar to a lobe-finned fish that had 5 bones in each of its fins that evolved into fingers and toes. Some tetrapods have subsequently lost digits but the basal state was five.
There’s a book, Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin that’s full of this kind of stuff. Highly recommend.
OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
scarabic@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I love it. So many things in the world don’t really have an “explanation,” they have a “story.”
The reason they are as they are is just because of prior conditions.