And why do they grow?
In: Biology
So, think of nails like nature’s multitool for your fingers and toes. They’re there to protect your digits, they provide a better grip while picking up small objects or performing delicate tasks and even give you that satisfying scratch when you need it.
Nails grow because your body’s always making new cells, including in the nail area. So, it’s like a constant DIY project, but instead of building a shelf, your body’s building awesome nails!
For a range of reasons:
* **Grip** – for a lot of animals they are incredibly useful for gripping items – whether that’s a piece of food or something that the animal is climbing up or trying to stay holding on to
* **Attack/defence** – hard, sharp or strong nails can be a pretty formidable weapon both offensively and defensively for animals, and can cause damage to other animals
* **Protection** – your fingers/animals paws are pretty important parts of their body, nails are a form of protection against the hardships of life and just make hands/paws a bit more resilient than being soft skin everywhere.
As for why they grow – they grow because in normal usage in the wild nails would become worn/ground and or damaged and so an animal that replenishes their nails has better survival chances than one whose nails are ‘one and done’.
Nails are like the Swiss Army knife of the body, providing protection for your fingers, giving you tools for scratching, and even acting as a gauge for overall health. They grow because your body continuously produces new cells, pushing the old ones out. Evolution at its finest!
In addition to the other answers, one very important purpose of nails for humans and the reason why they are flat (mostly flat) is that they provide a hard wall that the tip of our fingers press against when we touch something and that gives us a much more precise sense of touch. Without nails the flesh would deform when we, for instance, type on a keyboard and our sense of touch would not be as precise and accurate. .
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