When you look back in the early history of tetrapods (we are tetrapods as well) you will notice, that the first of them had 8 digits on their hand and feet.
One example for that is Hynerpeton, one of the early tetrapods from the devonian. Those 8 digits got reduced in later species. The most common today in the more advanced tetrapods is 5 digits. So when i look at my hand and feet i have 5 on each of them and i assume most of you guys have that too,
Now there are rare cases of so called polydactyly. People who suffer from that genetic defect have 6 or more digits on their hand or feet. How do you think that happenes? Is it a "new generated mutation" or do you assume that old genes get activated? There is not much research done yet in that specific topic.
One example for that is Hynerpeton, one of the early tetrapods from the devonian. Those 8 digits got reduced in later species. The most common today in the more advanced tetrapods is 5 digits. So when i look at my hand and feet i have 5 on each of them and i assume most of you guys have that too,
Now there are rare cases of so called polydactyly. People who suffer from that genetic defect have 6 or more digits on their hand or feet. How do you think that happenes? Is it a "new generated mutation" or do you assume that old genes get activated? There is not much research done yet in that specific topic.
