Why do we have five fingers and toes? It all goes back to our fishy ancestors. The answer to why we have five fingers and toes is surprisingly difficult to suss out. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. The popular nursery rhyme is an early childhood memory for many of us.

It was difficult to sleep at night, wishing good men dead. This was but one of the hurtful things I felt in my bones and wished I could ignore. It was an ugly truth waving its arms that I turned my gaze from, that I didn't like to admit even to myself. But while my bag warmed me with the last of its power and my breath spilled out in white plumes toward the roof of our tent, while the flicker of a whisper stove melted snow for midnight tea, I lay in that dead zone above sixty thousand feet and hoped not just for the failure of those above me, but that no man summit and live to tell the tale. Not before I had my chance.

People with six fingers on each hand may have trouble buying gloves, but new research shows they are better at many tasks than those with just five. Researchers found makers of robots should consider giving their creations six fingers. In a study, two people, a German mother and son, both with six fingers on each hand, were given a variety of physical tasks to carry out. They found that they could carry out many tasks, such as tying a shoelace, with just one hand, rather than two. In a study, two people, a German mother and son, both with six fingers on each hand, were given a variety of physical tasks to carry out.