answer to toe nails

its Krystal and i have an answer to Jaclyn's question about toe nails and why we have them or at least what i have determined after taking an anthropology class where we have learned about primates, humans and evolution. I'm not saying this is the correct answer to the question but it will shed some light on the problem. First off I don't want to get into an argument with anyone about evolution because that could take years to discuss and we'd probably just end up in the same views as we started with so just for this purpose let's all see evolution as a valid idea that should be seen on its own merit and not compared to anything else. Also I've only taken one class on this topic so I'm no where near and expert so don't take what I say as absolute truth, its just my thoughts on the topic, ok with all that covered i guess we can move on the actual answer i know you're all waiting to find out but it really isn't all that exciting. Toe nails are an evolutionary trait but for the most part in primates closest to humans and human like creatures both toe nails and finger nails where never used as a defence like claws it was more related to the fact that our greatest asset is our use of hands and to a lesser extent feet and how they are used. there are very few other animals in the world that use their hands and feet in the same way that primates do, primate hands have both strength and dexterity, we can use them to snap a stick in half or softly pick up a hair or something, you don't see other animals like llamas doing that, no offence to llamas they are just different from primates. primates and human like creatures needed to use their hands in many different ways, mostly for food collection, because for the most part they where omnivores who ate mostly plants and bugs and such and generally didn't hunt large animals. they did eat meat to a certain extent but it was mostly scavenged from other animal's kills, meat for the most part was not the bases of their diet. now i know that finger nails and toe nails are different things but the same goes for toe nails. without finger nails we wouldn't be able to do the same things that we do, they give support and protection to our very important finger tips. toe nails provide the same support and protection to our toes as we walk. ya it hurts when you stub your toe and even if you really do a number on it, the toe nail will fall off and grow back, it may be painful but it is better than a broken toe if there was no nail there to protect it. and toe nails probably evolved to help us climb trees but when we were still living in trees we still had a large amount of hair as well which we do not today, well most people anyway :p so toe nails must have served some other purpose for them to stay around over the same period of time the full body hair did not. well thats just what i think anyways but i do agree Jaclyn toe nails are a pain to deal with but they do serve a purpose how ever small :) alright thats all i have to say hope you found that at least a little interesting