# Why did we evolve finger- and toenails? What purpose do they serve? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** science-math\ **Created:** [November 11, 2024, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-we-evolve-finger-and-toenails-what-purpose-do-they-serve/1010056 "2024-11-11T01:15:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-we-evolve-finger-and-toenails-what-purpose-do-they-serve/1010056/22 "2024-11-27T05:50:14Z")
Little known fact: sea lions have claws on their flippers. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-we-evolve-finger-and-toenails-what-purpose-do-they-serve/1010056/23 "2025-05-04T19:38:57Z")
> [@Kedikat](#): > > I find that when I have clipped my nails too short, I have harder time doing a lot of things. Me too. Removing external parasites for example. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-we-evolve-finger-and-toenails-what-purpose-do-they-serve/1010056/24 "2025-05-05T16:51:10Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Many primates use fingernails to pick at parasites, including on each other as a social thing. Chimpanzees use their nails in fighting to great effect. I’m curious if any other apes or even monkeys likewise use them as an effective weapon. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-we-evolve-finger-and-toenails-what-purpose-do-they-serve/1010056/25 "2025-05-05T16:54:20Z")
Fingernails are excellent tools for pinching back soft new growth on plants to create more compact, bushy specimens. Also good for collecting DNA from attacking criminals. Don’t leave home without 'em. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-we-evolve-finger-and-toenails-what-purpose-do-they-serve/1010056/26 "2025-05-05T17:36:53Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Don’t leave home without 'em While I am not a fan, long fingernails (and false nails) are a secondary sexual attractor. (At least in females for males). Males… probably best to keep them trimmed. I assume because evolutionary biology convinces us men that long fingernails on a woman implies a higher social status, one in which the owner of said nails does not need to root around for grubs, she gets them provided. But also… fashion is weird. Not too long ago, men wore high heels, and now those are entirely women only. (I mean, exceptions exist, but mostly) ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-we-evolve-finger-and-toenails-what-purpose-do-they-serve/1010056/27 "2025-05-05T17:50:47Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > They can be rather deadly weapons, used properly. I can’t attest to “deadly”, but they can wound and back off an amorously aggressive drunk. The human head area can bleed quite profusely. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-we-evolve-finger-and-toenails-what-purpose-do-they-serve/1010056/28 "2025-05-05T19:39:20Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > We didn’t evolve finger and toenails. The thing we evolved from already had them. All [amniotes](https://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G104/lectures/104land.html) can produce keratin and have claws or claw-like structures (save, of course, for those who gave up on limbs with some kind of waking or grasping appendage, and even those still have the genes for creating limbs and claws). The question should really be not why do humans have fingernails but why did primates give up on having thick, durable claws/hoofs like most land mammals and instead evolve these incredibly delicate and easily damaged flattened structures which don’t offer much in the way of protection or use as weapons? It is tempting to answer in a reductionist fashion that it is due to intelligence or greater dexterity but very few other animals mammals have evolved anything similar in parallel, and it almost certainly started early in the evolutionary branching of _Plesiadapiformes_, perhaps more than 60 Mya ago, long before they developed large brains. Stranger [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-we-evolve-finger-and-toenails-what-purpose-do-they-serve/1010056.md?page=1)