This little piggy went to market, this little piggy reminds us of our ape ancestry

Ask someone what is their favourite part of the body and you will get a number of responses consisting of the usual suspects. Very few, I imagine, will cite their feet and their 'best bit'. And with little surprise. Feet are not the most attractive part of a human being's body. Mine are particularly repulsive.

Though what interests me concerning feet are the toenails. Just what are they for?! They seem to provide no apparent purpose other than to get long and tear holes in the end of the socks. 

What they seem to be is a glimpse into the past - a snapshot of who we were some millions of years ago. Our feet possess five digits each, much like our hands. Our feet possess nails at the tips, much like our hands. When our nails (toe and finger) become long they remind us of claws similar to the claws on other mammals.

Are our toenails simply a redundant remnant from a time when we walked on four limbs? When we became bipedal the need for rear claws disappeared but the nails remained. Is that not the simplest explanation?! Does it not comply with the requirements of Ockham's razor (as opposed to Ken Ham's one)?!

I came to this conclusion not through reading scientific journals or attending conferences, but by simple observation and curiosity. Toenails seemed such strange and (no pun intended) pointless things. There must be an explanation. Saying they are 'designed' begs the question "are they actually a design fault". It makes more sense to trace them back to other animals. 

And while we're on it, why do I have to shave everyday? Or to put it another way, why do I have hair all over my body? As I am carried kicking and screaming into middle age I find more and  more hair appearing in all sorts of places. Not only is it on my arms, legs and chest (and the other place, and by that I'm not referring to the House of Lords) but in my ears and up my nose. Now, having recently been to the zoo I noticed that apes don't just have human-like faces, but are also covered with a lot of body hair.

Just as toenails and fingernails are a remnant of the past, so too the fine coating of hair we all have is again a throwback to our common ape ancestor. So on that note, once you've finished grooming me, pass that banana or I'll go ape!