Basically the title
In: Biology
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When in water for an extended period of time, our skin absorbs water. Because of this, water gets in the gaps of our outer most layer of our skin, normally where skin is thickest. The swelling causes your skin to expand and contract at the same time, causing the “wrinkles”.
Some scientists think that this an evolution within humans to help us grip things under water, but it’s still not 100% known why it happens or if there are any evolutionary benefits.
I read it’s evolutionary. If your environment is wet and slippery, then our fingers and toes wrinkle to get a better grip on things. Like a caveman climbing rocks out of a river or whatever.
Your skin absorbs water. When it absorbs water, it expands. However, it can’t expand infinitely because that would pull it away from your body (which it can’t do because of how it’s attached to you.) So it has to expand in a different way. The wrinkles occur because that increases the surface area of your skin without needing to pull the skin away from the stuff it’s attached to.
Wrinkled surfaces have more surface area than smooth surfaces with the same volume. This is why healthy human brains are wrinkly: those wrinkles mean more surface area, and the surface part of your brain is where the layers of special cells (collectively called the “neocortex”) are located. More wrinkles, more fancy cells, more powerful brain.
To improve our grip, like tire treads. The wrinkles make tiny ducts, allowing the water to flow away more efficiently when you try to grab something, giving you more contact
A lot of people still think it’s a physics reaction, osmosis with the water, that your body doesn’t make the wrinkles, they happen to it. But it doesn’t happen if your nerves are damaged – your body has to make it happen, on purpose
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