Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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Isn't it weird that we have exactly five fingers and five toes on each hand and foot. (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/showerthoughts

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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.

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[–] Atrabiliousaurus 41 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

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 9 points 9 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Amazing book. I recommend reading it if you're interested in evolution.