Why do we have finger nails?

What's the point on having them?Why do we have finger nails?
They are a handy weapon.





'handy' get it :L


Not funny, I know.Why do we have finger nails?
Because it beats nothing. Literally.





If you check out the other living primates--monkeys, great apes, and so on--all of the species have nails, down to the lemurs and tarsiers, some few of which have claws still.





Why is it that only the primitive, really *primitive* primates get claws, which are better all around for stratching itches, defense, etc.?





It might help to search the site below for the whole phrases, with quotes, of ';primate evolution'; and ';fingernails, and ';claws';:





http://www.sciam.com/





Last time I checked the print magazines on the subject, the point of it was that as our eyes, brains, faces and such got bigger and more complex, we used more calories for that, and one really early result of this was that we no longer had the calories or metabolism to support full claws anymore.





So we grew the *cheap version* instead with fingernails, because our bodies had better things to do.





I hope this helps. ^__^
To protect the ends of our fingers that would otherwise be getting hurt pretty bad every time we banged them if we didn't have nails. They also come in hand for scratching.
Good question. Because it would look a little weird if we just had the skinny stubs without anything on them. Think about it?
When we hunted for our own food and such, our nails protected our fingers and stuff
Handy for clawing through enemy or prey.
Protection.





Also so we can have a good old pick and chew.
scratching. it would totally suck to not be able to itch stuff.
Boogers we can't reach %26amp; Itches we need to scratch .....





Ain't evolution great !
protection.... they were for self defense while we were still savages lol
So we can scratch that itch
To scratch Guy's backs with?
So we can scratch our asses. And have cute mani's! =)
as an artist i love my nails.. they come in handy for all kinds of things.








without my nails i'd be screwed!