Why does the human hand normally only have 5 fingers?

[Anonymous]

It is clear the human palm can hold more than 5 fingers, why is it only 5? Why not the whole palm all around 😂

[Orion84]

I would assume it's because it functions just fine with five, so why have more?

Extra fingers would require additional resources for the body to grow & maintain, for little extra gain. It just seems like a waste.

Human beings already evolved out of multiple vestigial body parts that were no longer necessary for survival. We lost of thicker fur, the ability to move our ears, our nictitating membranes, and our appendix.

Several people are being born, now, without wisdom teeth, and we're evolving to lose our pinky toes, as well. If nature can streamline our bodies, and get rid of superfluous parts, it will generally do so.

[Asker]

But if we originally had more than 5 then normally there will be a slightly different functionality that can use more fingers, but for some reason we just have 5 and were meant to have just 5 lol

[Orion84]

Well, homo sapiens have always had five fingers, but some of our more distant, pre-human ancestors were polydactyl, meaning they had more than five digits.

It's just that evolution dropped the extra ones a long, long time ago, well before life reached to hominid stage of development.

[Asker]

So you mean monkeys 💀

[Orion84]

No, I'm talking about well before the great apes, all the way back to the much earlier stages of evolution, even before the dinosaurs.

[Asker]

So big monkeys 😂

[Orion84]

Well, they weren't monkeys back then, no, and in fact, the first mammals were actually really tiny, but I mean even back before mammals existed at all.

[DryGermanGuy]

Bruce Nolan agrees! :-)

[Asker]

Lol.

[SueShe]

The vast majority of mammals only have 5 fingers and that is due to gene linkage. Even science cannot explain why mammals have 5 fingers but it is assumed that having more than 5 fingers could impact other aspects of the human body.

With evolution, genes start to link with each others and changing one of those genes or link may impact another part of the body where this gene should have been used to develop that part. In other words, our overall health could have been negatively impacted if that gene was withdrawn from where it should have been used.

[Asker]

So why weren't we born with more than 5 fingers than? Why wasn't our genetic link different 😂

[SueShe]

Science does not have an exact answer to this question. Two very prominent scientists, K. Cooper and T. Steward, both biology scientists don't have exact scientific proof as to why this is like that.

[Asker]

Fair enough lol

[MemeSupreme]

don't be greedy chico

having two middle fingers to flip someone off is just as good as one

[Asker]

Not if they flick me off with both as well, I need at least 3 😂

[MemeSupreme]

3? wouldn't it be weird having more on one hand than the other lol

[Asker]

I guess it depends which is your main hand 🤔

[MemeSupreme]

could you imagine shaking hands with someone who has 3 middle fingers lol

the power imbalance

[Asker]

Or high 3 instead of high five 😂

[Maybe_Maybe_not]

Clearly we should have had more than five fingers, that's what most AIs recommend !

[Asker]

Lmao

[Miah06]

I would think they kinda get in the way. If they start wrapping around the palm

[Asker]

The slap will be more powerful that's for sure

[Miah06]

But like how you gonna grab a shovel or a broom, like the fingers just be in the way

[Asker]

I'm sure there's ways 😂

[Miah06]

I don't know. 🤔

[LiamS95]

Actually it's normally four fingers and a thumb.

[Asker]

Is a thumb not a finger? 😂

[LiamS95]

We gave an index finger a middle finger, a ring finger, a baby finger abd a thumb while they're all considered digits the thumb is definitely nit called a finger.

[Dongie]

They would get in my way.

[Dongie]

El loco

[Asker]

Probably 🤔

[Booboolove69]

Ewww creepy 🧟

[Asker]

Lol.

[Anonymous]

I wonder the same, we should protest, we want more fingers :P

[alice55]

No idea

[Asker]

😂😂

[Malwi93]

its just optimal 4 me

[TwoToTooTutu2]

Intelligent design.

[Anonymous]

Put down the bong