Why do we have fingernails / toenails?

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Recently smashed my finger and lost the nail and it got me wondering what is the biological / mechanical / etc function / reason for fingernails? Sure it would be harder to grip little things, but is there a structural reason why our digits need these things?

EDIT: Follow up question. What is different about the skin underneath your nail that makes it so painful when initially exposed to air?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Fingernails are incredibly useful. I think they are underrated in terms of thinking of the things we could do with them and how they have helped us to create advanced machinery. They help us with so many intricate tasks that we would regular not be capable of doing. I always see alien movies where some aliens have giant fingers and I’m like there’s no way they could make an advanced civilization with those stubby ass fingers.

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