Nails are just vestigial claws.

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• Contramuffin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Vestigial may not be the correct word. We do use our nails quite a lot for finer manipulation of tools

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  • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It also serves to enable very precise grip in a way that a blunt fingertip couldn’t and to protect the fingertip from injury. It definitely isn’t vestigial.

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    • Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I mean… they’re definitely have a function. But they only serve those functions because they’re not proper claws. If w3 actually had claws, we wouldn’t manage such fine manipulation.

      I think that’s more like a happy accident though. I was more thinking about toenails. My late father’s (RIP stubborn bastard) nails definitely were closer to claws than nails.

      And that made me think of elephant toes. Did you know elephants are basically tiptoeing all the time, btw? It just very much doesn’t look like it.

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• latenightnoir@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  And teeth developed from scales (no joke!) ;)

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  • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    There’s still debate over how exactly teeth originated.

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    • SandmanXC@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Sorry but it’s pretty well known that teeth developed because our skeletons wanted some air.

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    • latenightnoir@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Oh, thank you! Didn’t know about this!

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  • Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    My ancestor must have suffered from some sort of scale baldness, as I congenitally lack 4 permanent teeth. We don’t suffer from actual baldness though, luckily.

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    • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Image

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• AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  As are hooves.

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  • Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    True enough.

    Ever thought about how those work in the womb? They’re not hard to begin with and covered with a “capsule” (which is the same thing biologically we have at the base of the nail; the eponychium is the thickened layer of skin at the base of the fingernails and toenails. It can also be called the medial or proximal nail fold.

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    www.petmd.com/horse/all-about-baby-horse-hooves

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