Comments on: Debate: did wrinkled fingers evolve for better grip?

By: Shane Shariff

Shane Shariff — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:22:19 +0000

Fingers prune for heat dispersion. This also occurs under heavy sweating. Greater surface area PLUS, movement of the hands, increase evaporation. This enhances the ability of the fingers to cool the blood.

By: T Swinfield

T Swinfield — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:31:15 +0000

I’m in favour of a mechanistic explanation. I had always assumed that wet skin simply absorbed more water than the flesh below and so expanded to a greater extent, causing the wrinkling.

A counter argument to an adaptive explanation is that if finger skin preferentially becomes wet in order to wrinkle and aid grip, this is likely to trade off against an increased potential for damage in soggy skin. This is going to be particularly pronounced in tasks requiring large amounts of friction. Any climber knows this.

By: J. Snow

J. Snow — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 23:40:56 +0000

And on the opposite side…in the winter my fingers get so “dry” that I can’t pick up things with just my fingertips if they are glass slick and too heavy. It requires a more substantial grip. I guess that means that my ancestors never got to a colder climate.

By: TR Gregory

TR Gregory — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:15:30 +0000

W. Benson — The point is, pruning takes several minutes even when soaked in hot water. No one has done any work on how it might be relevant in the rain.

Incidentally, my students and I do plenty of field work, including in Africa.

By: Julian D.

Julian D. — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:19:37 +0000

Does pruning occur similarly among other primate species? I could easily see this sort of adaptation being useful in dense, humid jungles.

By: W. Benson

W. Benson — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:47:20 +0000

Both Gregory and Changizi seem to be unaware that it rains, even over ‘the savanna’. Sad commentary on lab scientists.

By: Rafael

Rafael — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 13:47:39 +0000

Even scientist don’t understand that evolution is a messy process with no objetive. Every time I hear this kind of argument is think about what kind of pressure would select these genes. I could just be a end project of other genes selection or a bottleneck effect.

Unfortunately the journalist cheery pick just these kind of article. And NEVER heard the consensus of science on that moment. Every science news just come with a comments of a specialist on that subject.

By: Mark Houston

Mark Houston — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 07:00:09 +0000

I would say that a water environment, past and present, in a natural world, would be a very dangerous environment and wonder how long our ancestors would have had to spend, submerged, in order for this type of Darwinian Adaptive Selection to have occurred.

By: TR Gregory

TR Gregory — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 01:48:09 +0000

This was an interesting discussion, and I’m glad you captured it (and could make sense of the overlapping threads in the exchange!). I decided to write up some more details points here:

http://www.genomicron.evolverzone.com/2013/01/the-great-wrinkled-finger-debate/

By: amphiox

amphiox — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 00:35:06 +0000

Before you can even begin to suggest evolutionary/adaptive hypotheses for traits, you have to first provide at least some evidence that the trait is even heritable in the first place.