Everything you know about wrinkly fingers is probably wrong. Particularly, it is not a physical act of water on the body, it is a neurological effect of the body on itself. People who have fingers with severed nerves do not prune on those fingers.
Reposted from
Caitlin 🐣
@hankgreen.bsky.social do my dogs toes get wrinkly if he’s in the water for too long? Are humans that spend a lot of time in water less likely to wrinkle? Is there a scishow video on this that I missed?
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Prior to looking this up, I never considered osmosis to be the cause as it only happened in certain parts of the body, hands and feet.
FASCINATING.
I'm not sure if anything else does actually prune.
I saw that macaques also get prune hands. So there is that.
I did notice that out of water, it was the same effort picking stuff up, because the oils on my non wrinkled hand helped me to get the same amount of friction.
P.S. Your toes will continue to prune no matter the sociopolitical milieu. Why not stoke scientific curiosity & learn why?
Thanks for spreading knowledge to the world. I love your channels and now stand up comedy. I hope you have a great 2025. You deserve nothing less.
They are always wrinkled. I can't use fingerprint verification on my devices.
Cite that damning paper, please!
It doesn't exist.
It's a myth that the field have rejected it. They've never even understood what "it" is. (Hint: there are several waterside hypotheses of human evolution. )
This counts as one such hypothesis. Another would be the Wading hypothesis of hominid bipedal origins.
See https://www.whattalks.com and https://www.riverapes.com
Desmond Morris first coined the term "aquatic ape" in his 1967 book, whilst listing ideas trying to explain our naked state.
Elaine Morgan used it because it made the idea sound more intriguing.
Waterside hypotheses (plural) of human evolution is more accurate.
An anesthetic cream that causes our blood vessels to constrict also causes skin wrinkling without immersion, so that's clearly part of the process.
There are times I'm not in the shower that long and my fingers get wrinkles. At other times I don't.
So by what neurological process does this happen? Is it a temperature thing?
Are they twins?
Jk😂✌️
Wrinkly fingers, smooth brain"
Wrinkle Conservation Laws
/j
my left hand's fingers tend to randomly get wrinkly, my right hand is my dominate but there is nerve damage to that side.
So, what exactly happening?
Can you train your brain not to do that to your fingers?
💜😘
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220620-why-humans-evolved-to-have-fingers-that-wrinkle-in-the-bath
It does tell us that wrinkled fingers and toes give us more friction when manipulating wet objects, which is more efficient in wet environments. We do need more studies to look into more benefits though.
he used to talk about this all the time on there
We also contacted someone who worked with the macaques in the Japanese hot springs and their fingers also wrinkled!
Maybe foraging in rivers/lakes or handling wet stone tools. Or the real benefit was from wrinkly feet walking in wet places and the fingers were a bonus.