I mean why 5, why 5 on each limb, why not 4 or 6. Why do our feet also have 5. Whats with our body being so symmetrical.

People who know anything about evolution, now is your time to shine.

  • Atrabiliousaurus@lemmy.world
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    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 sets of 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.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      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.