• Question: why cant we have more hands and arms and fingers?

    Asked by purpleelephant to Alex, Ali, Kerry, Philip, Theo on 17 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Alex Pool

      Alex Pool answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      In theory over time maybe we’ll evolve to have more. But that’s just how we’ve evolved so far is to have 2 sets of arms and hands.

    • Photo: Alison Thomson

      Alison Thomson answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Because the amount we have gives us plenty of manual dexterity – if we needed more then we would have evolved to have them by now. Who knows, maybe in the future we’ll have extra arms?!

    • Photo: Philip Ratcliffe

      Philip Ratcliffe answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Well, some people actually do, but then they usually then want to get rid of them!
      Presumably, the natural selection of the evolution process has determined that these are the optimal numbers. Already many people have difficulty in using two hands independently, just imagine if you had three or four!

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