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Aris Katsaris writes...

A weird biological comment:
I read that in almost all vertebrates (with the exception of newts and salamanders) digits II and III are formed first, then IV and finally I and V (digits being numbered from the thumb and moving to the pinky)

Now, when in the course of evolution a species of animal loses a couple of fingers, it's always done in the *reverse* order (because losing an "early" digit would destroy the development of all the following ones). So in evolution, when individual digits are lost, it's always either the "thumb" or the "pinky" first, followed by the other, then IV, and then II and III.

Which means that since Gargoyles have four digits in each hand, (and since they *do* have a thumb) it means that most probably it's the "pinky" that they are missing, and not one of the three fingers inbetween.

Now, was that more about digit evolution than you ever wanted to know? :-)

Greg responds...

Uh. Actually that was kinda fun.

But what if instead of "losing" a digit, they never had one in the first place?

Or what if two interior digits fused into one?

Response recorded on October 26, 2000