Eli5: Why can’t we move our toes individually like we can our fingers?
In: Biology
Because there has not been enough evolutionary advantage in doing so. Our monkey ancestors from whom we evolved can’t move their fingers or toes independently –all the fingers move together, just like our toes. Our ape ancestors, more closely related to us than monkeys, do have some ability to move their fingers independently, though they are not as dextrous as humans. But as we evolved away from a more ape-like form, we evolved to have more finger dexterity and also we evolved so that feet would specialize in walking, and not be used to grasp or hold things. I think to a certain extent, though, we could have more dexterity in our feet if we were raised to need them for that purpose. I once saw a video of a woman who was born with no arms and she uses her feet like hands in a very dextrous manner. I don’t recall if she could move her toes independently, but I believe that she could. The ability may be there, but since we don’t use it and aren’t trained to use it, we don’t do it.
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