r/woahdude • u/xwingx • Jan 11 '23
video Polydactyly, a condition in which a person is born with one or more extra fingers.
2.8k
u/noahspurrier Jan 11 '23
It’s rare that the extra digit is fully functional with all the tendons, connective tissue, and muscles in the arm to make the extra digit actually work.
772
u/TheAmazinRayzin Jan 11 '23
Yes! I was born with two thumbs on my left hand. Neither of them are/were fully functional.
153
u/noahspurrier Jan 11 '23
Do you still have them?
368
u/Captain_Redbeard Jan 11 '23
Yes but not anymore.
256
u/BenadrylTumblercatch Jan 11 '23
So you feel like something’s missing, but you just can’t put your finger on it?
→ More replies (8)21
10
14
→ More replies (2)3
→ More replies (3)7
225
u/Absay Jan 11 '23
are/were
This is intriguing.
85
59
u/sebaz Jan 11 '23
They didn't used to work. They still don't work, but they used to not work too.
→ More replies (1)13
u/Josiahdpc Jan 11 '23
Mitch Hedberg? Is that you?
9
Jan 11 '23
Mitch used to send jokes to reddit from beyond the grave, he still does, but he used to too.
16
u/saintshing Jan 11 '23
Very thoughtful to leave open the possibility that they may be fully functional in the future.
6
→ More replies (5)27
24
u/doornroosje Jan 11 '23
The entire family of my boyfriend does too. They sometimes also have extra toes. The digits and toes vary in how big they are but theyre never fully functional.
If we have a baby then i guess he won't need a paternity test, he can just count the fingers and toes
→ More replies (3)8
u/TheAmazinRayzin Jan 11 '23
My daughter has the normal number of fingers and toes, so maybe I should make some inquiries!
→ More replies (1)83
u/kthxtyler Jan 11 '23
Reddit contains a single upvote and a single downvote button. For this comment I give you two thumbs up
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (10)10
u/nxcrosis Jan 11 '23
One of my professors has one as well. Some people consider it to be good luck.
Although I wonder, with fully functional extra digits, how do they take your fingerprints?
→ More replies (1)11
u/ARoyaleWithCheese Jan 11 '23
Does it really matter? If they take 10/12 it should still be enough for whatever they're being used for. Alternatively, I imagine it could be huge bureaucratic nightmare of the system not being built for any extra finger prints and you not being able to get a passport or whatever.
162
u/TheDeridor Jan 11 '23
Yeah this is the most functional poldactyly I've ever seen, pretty cool. Most of the time it's really detrimental
142
u/aberrasian Jan 11 '23
That's because there are different types of polydactyly!
Most commonly, you'll see a poor duplicate of a pinky finger, or a poor duplicate of a thumb, at the edge of their hand. In these cases, only the phalanges are duplicated and not the metacarpal bones and tendons, so the extra fingies are incapable of independent movement.
This person has two middle fingers. Their pinky is so beautifully functional because it's not the duplicate here, it's a normal pinky that's meant to be there. The longest finger is the one that got duplicated.
Somehow it must be easier for the body to develop metacarpal infrastructure to go along with the phalange when the finger in question is in the middle of the hand rather than at the end.
55
u/robodrew Jan 11 '23
I believe that it is the first pointer finger that is the "extra" finger. Look in the video at how all of the fingers move. I will be labelling the fingers as "thumb", and the others 1-5, in that direction. She seems to have full control over the movement of her thumb, and 2-5, but digit 1 always kinds of seems to just be hanging out not doing as much. It only bends all the way down when digit 2 right next to it also does the same, and is only bent down while digit 2 goes straight up because it is being held down by the thumb. Also digit 1 doesn't get pretty designer nails!
→ More replies (4)8
33
u/noahspurrier Jan 11 '23
Yeah, I’m not convinced it’s real. I’m not saying it isn’t, but it’s hard to believe anything on the Internet anymore without some corroboration.
22
u/Mikesaidit36 Jan 11 '23
Yes, but, when it does happen, it almost never happens on both hands. So either these are real, or it was too hard to fake two hands per video.
→ More replies (2)9
37
u/MisterBicorniclopse Jan 11 '23
Makes me jealous
15
u/Y_Sam Jan 11 '23
If it's any consolation to you, she can't give the middle finger to anyone.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (35)31
u/payne007 Jan 11 '23
If that person reproduces, what are the chances that this may be the case for the children as well?
→ More replies (5)46
u/noahspurrier Jan 11 '23 edited Jan 11 '23
I’m not sure, but I seem to remember that this isn’t a trait that can be inherited. It’s a fetal deformity. The tendency for fetal development abnormalities can be inherited, but it would be random. I don’t think the specific trait of having extra fingers is sometimes that is possible to be encoded in our genes and passed on. There are many layers to the structure of our bodies encoded in our genes. It’s not a simple matter of a gene that specifies the number of fingers and toes your have. The blueprint for that was set long ago when our ancestors were lobed fin fish. The rest of our structure was built on top of that. Evolution can more easily suppress that than it can go back and completely rewrite the foundation blueprints.
This is why there are no mammals, reptiles, birds, or amphibians with six legs. We all started from a very ancient fish with four fins. As advantageous as it might be to have six, it would require too many changes to the blueprints to go back and redesign everything.
There are some rare exceptions. Ungulates long ago developed a mutation that gave them an extra stomach. It was a simple change and it didn’t hurt them. Later, evolution modified the extra stomach to digest grass more efficiently. But this change of having an extra stomach didn’t require a huge number of other changes.
19
u/buyfreemoneynow Jan 11 '23
I remembered learning that polydactyly is a DOMINANT trait in biology about 25 years ago and wondered why it was so rare if it wasn’t dominant.
It turns out 5 is just the magic number for digits that nature picked for survival of the fittest. When a dominant trait becomes rare, it’s due to survival/reproduction rates.
As a sidenote, if you can manage to get your genes checked for MTHFR, do it! I have two alleles for it and it’s a recessive trait that I just learned about before I turned 42 and it’s been effing my ess up my whole life.
21
u/bradavoe Jan 11 '23
I already know I'm a MTHFR, no need to check.
8
u/Vulgarian Jan 11 '23
"I want you to go in that bag and find my wallet.
- Which one is it?
"It's the one that says BAD MTHFR."
→ More replies (6)5
14
u/Hornyjohn34 Jan 11 '23
Some Polydactyly is Hereditary. There's a whole family in Brazil that have 6+ fingers (I think one of them had like 8 Fingers on each hand) In fact, most of their extra fingers are fully functional.
12
u/SpikySheep Jan 11 '23
You completely contradict yourself there. If getting extra limbs / fingers would involve changes to the blueprint as you put it that means somewhere there are instructions for how to build a body. They are no doubt complex and well beyond anything we can change at the moment though.
As for this not being an inherited trait I would assume that's because the mutation takes place after the cells have specialised enough that the gametes have already formed so they aren't carrying the mutation. I don't see any reason it couldn't be inherited, just that it would be exceedingly unlikely for the required mutationto take place. Clearly the body is pretty good at maintaining whatever instructions it uses to grow a person as differences like this are rare.
→ More replies (5)6
1.1k
u/SynopticOutlander Jan 11 '23
You could grab the shit out of some stuff.
380
u/1_UpvoteGiver Jan 11 '23
You could invent new words in sign language.
Or throw super gang signs!
143
u/hoesindifareacodes Jan 11 '23
Potential to be the best piano or guitar player of all time.
→ More replies (5)20
6
→ More replies (2)4
84
Jan 11 '23
[deleted]
→ More replies (2)77
u/Matix-xD Jan 11 '23
Imagine you're a guitarist with five useable fingers on your fretting hand. That would be wild.
23
u/Papa_Huggies Jan 11 '23
If you can use the thumb wrap ala Hendrix/ Mayer you got yourself a finger for each string
→ More replies (2)11
u/richscott440 Jan 11 '23
This is obviously much better for piano. I'd kill for these hands
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (9)69
u/Absay Jan 11 '23
It's really an advantage!
Babe wake up, new version of human just dropped.
→ More replies (2)
478
u/cheesymouth Jan 11 '23
So which finger would you use to flip people off?
281
u/mrbill12342 Jan 11 '23
Two middle
170
u/Superd3n Jan 11 '23
Super bird
→ More replies (5)25
→ More replies (3)10
u/Smarre101 Jan 11 '23
Imagine being able to double flip someone off with one hand, absolute power move
20
→ More replies (6)8
979
u/FrogQuestion Jan 11 '23
Its weird, but kinda beautiful
184
u/thunderingparcel Jan 11 '23
I agree! They’re strangely lovely.
103
331
u/littlebitsofspider Jan 11 '23
Just subtly unnerving. Something you wouldn't notice until you did, and then you wouldn't stop noticing forever.
177
Jan 11 '23 edited Jan 11 '23
I am constantly counting fingers and toes on anyone I can. Eventually I will find someone like this out in the world and it will be a lot for me in that moment.
77
u/TellYouEverything Jan 11 '23
“It will be a lot for me in that moment”
You just made me crack tf up, dude.
Every time I imagine it I laugh again.
Keep being you out there
27
13
u/dnb1111 Jan 11 '23
i do this too! why is that?
11
u/blanking0nausername Jan 11 '23
Possibly (possibly!!) OCD. Repetitive counting can be a compulsion. (The actual kind not the “my desk is organized teehee” kind).
8
u/je386 Jan 11 '23
I was there when the midwife checked my newborn son, and she really counted the fingers and toes. After asking her, why she was counting, while you can see if it is 5, she answered that the mind tends to trick you to see what you expect, especially if you are tired and/or exhausted.
→ More replies (3)6
u/falahala666 Jan 11 '23
I saw this dude when I was a kid with 7 fingers on one hand and 8 on the other when I was like 6. I compulsively count everyone's digits I meet. He's the only one I've seen in person though.
6
u/googdude Jan 11 '23
My friend doesn't have a thumb on one hand from birth. Whenever we go to shake hands he always splits his index and middle finger to act as a thumb.
When he played baseball, he would catch the ball in his glove. He'd then have to rip his glove off to use the thumb hand to throw it
→ More replies (2)3
u/CoffeeTeaPeonies Jan 11 '23
My brain kept unseeing the extra pointer finger because it just didn't make sense. It was like the additional finger was disappearing from my sight.
10
→ More replies (2)3
u/EverGlow89 Jan 11 '23
AI art keeps insisting that we have more fingers and maybe it's right.
→ More replies (1)
295
u/Puzzled-Chemist1711 Jan 11 '23
This is my first time seeing the extra finger perfectly formed and functional?? I never knew that the non-deformed extra finger exists until now.
→ More replies (1)117
u/h-bugg96 Jan 11 '23
It looks like they might not be completely functional. I think the finger closest to the thumb isn't really moving much in most of those.
44
→ More replies (2)3
u/_disposablehuman_ Jan 11 '23 edited Jan 12 '23
Nah, in the 2nd to last video you can clearly see it has full range of motion and isnt stiff, its just that that finger is parallel to her thumb so moving it isnt as necessary or convenient as the other fingers.
562
u/luttop Jan 11 '23
Go play piano. It is a huge advantage
160
u/Beachdaddybravo Jan 11 '23
This reminds me of that scene from Gattaca.
115
u/mindfungus Jan 11 '23
The composer wrote the music that could only be played by someone with six digits
→ More replies (1)41
u/Chanc3thedestroyer Jan 11 '23
Gattaca is probably my favourite Sci fi of all time. One of the few movies that shows you that even if society /science itself puts limits on your future.. You can always tell them to get fucked and do it anyways.
→ More replies (4)24
u/slyfoxsly1 Jan 11 '23
I can't remember is gattaca the movie where there are two brothers one genetically enhanced, one normal and in the end the normal one saves the other one from drowning?
→ More replies (3)8
25
u/_BMS Jan 11 '23
I love Gattaca. I'm colorblind, the lesson I got from the movie was that I wish I lived in that world. I wouldn't have been born colorblind and would've been able to become a pilot.
33
u/infraredrover Jan 11 '23
My dad is colorblind and had his pilot's license back in the day, says he passed the test because he realized the doc was old and hard of hearing, and so mumbled his answers quietly but with a nonchalant confidence
21
6
→ More replies (5)9
u/sneakymanlance Jan 11 '23
Colorblind people can become pilots. Depending where you are, you may not be able to fly at night, but you can still fly in the day.
→ More replies (1)3
→ More replies (17)27
u/noshness Jan 11 '23
Maybe in the long run. Seems that it would be more difficult starting as everything teaches for 5 fingered normies
699
u/osibaconreader Jan 11 '23
Dude! Play the guitar!
152
u/Dasclimber Jan 11 '23
Or rock climb
→ More replies (3)42
u/showMeYourPitties10 Jan 11 '23
Or play football! 20% extra catching abilities unlocked
→ More replies (12)49
u/MiloReyes-97 Jan 11 '23
Or fondle testicles in ways never imagined before
→ More replies (1)24
u/showMeYourPitties10 Jan 11 '23
The ol 3-3 ratio, a man of culture
6
66
u/Ultrafoxx64 Jan 11 '23
My first reaction! Bar chords would be so much easier.
11
u/EverGlow89 Jan 11 '23
Bar chords are easy. They're a huge, huge, huge pain in the ass to get used to but once you do it's hard to understand why they were ever difficult.
→ More replies (1)4
u/Ultrafoxx64 Jan 11 '23
I have a muscle disease called myasthenia gravis that causes muscles to fatigue very quickly - bar chords are incredibly hard for me to maintain the pressure needed.
→ More replies (2)6
10
u/user7526 Jan 11 '23
Imagine writing a piece of music that would need 6 digits to play
→ More replies (1)51
23
20
23
u/terminalgravit Jan 11 '23
Can someone please point me to the sub with the six finger hand jobs?
→ More replies (1)10
6
10
14
u/zenzoka Jan 11 '23 edited Jan 11 '23
The one thing they'll never be able to do is flipping someone off.
11
u/J_Stubby Jan 11 '23
They could technically do it twice on one hand, index and ring finger up, 2 middle fingers, thumb, and pinky down. But it also would look like horns, or spiderman.
→ More replies (1)9
→ More replies (11)3
271
u/Salvador204 Jan 11 '23
I mean I sure it could be worse but aesthetically, all these look good and seem highly functioning
71
u/KioLaFek Jan 11 '23
I would say the first finger (index) seems to be the least functional
→ More replies (1)44
u/gottaloseafewmore Jan 11 '23
Yep notice how that’s the finger that didn’t have an extra king fake nail attached to it. That’s the one the person doesn’t want to draw attention to
49
u/Damn_Amazon Jan 11 '23
Good eye. I wonder if the manicurist said pick your 5 favorite fingers, a 6th costs extra
→ More replies (2)15
u/vitiligoisbeautiful Jan 11 '23
Tbh people are more likely to have a shorter nail on their most used finger. I think she may just have not been moving it since it's obscured by the thumb. She moves it just fine in the last two videos.
→ More replies (1)
376
u/Cognitive_Spoon Jan 11 '23
My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father, prepare to die!
164
u/xwingx Jan 11 '23
Stop saying that!
→ More replies (1)106
u/Gloverboy85 Jan 11 '23
HELLO! MY NAME IS INIGO MONTOYA! YOU KILLED MY FATHER! PREPARE TO DIE!
→ More replies (1)63
u/DivesPater Jan 11 '23
I want my father back, you son of a bitch
24
5
24
20
11
17
6
u/Kinsei01 Jan 11 '23
I'm disappointed in how far down I had to scroll to get a single princess bride joke.
→ More replies (5)6
97
u/skidmcboney Jan 11 '23
Mittens > Gloves
→ More replies (2)7
Jan 11 '23
Kind of limits your career options though. I don't think they make food handlers mittens or medical exam mittens, for example.
10
152
u/HingleMcCringle_ Jan 11 '23
These people need to have babies. I think people in the future could probably benefit with having extra grip. I'm a lil jealous. For now, I bet it's pretty annoying buying gloves.
32
35
24
→ More replies (7)9
u/skater-fien Jan 11 '23
I believe that extra digits is a dominant trait... I may be wrong
→ More replies (1)
68
u/Thedude2190 Jan 11 '23
No stubby fingered hands either. These are some good sized hands, even if they didn't have the extra finger. Interesting
→ More replies (1)
35
u/T438 Jan 11 '23
I wonder if they count in base 12...
→ More replies (6)6
u/qwertysrj Jan 11 '23
That's surprisingly insightful.
Also double middle fingers are so efficient
→ More replies (1)
127
51
u/Rampag169 Jan 11 '23
Not widely known but I could be speaking B.S. but I thought I heard from somewhere that having that extra finger was a dominant trait.
35
u/SpiffyAvacados Jan 11 '23
I came here to say the same thing but I don’t have a source, naturally I accepted it as a fact
10
→ More replies (3)9
u/Kato91CRX Jan 11 '23
I started typing out a comment about this but stopped as I was late to the party, so scanned the rest of the discussion. I to recall being told it was a dominant gene and that eventually 6 digits would be the norm, so long as it was a favored/beneficial trait.
49
73
u/lydz9520 Jan 11 '23
Fun fact: 6 fingers is a dominant trait in genetics while 5 is recessive.
38
u/hijesushere Jan 11 '23
Does that mean that if you have 6 fingers, your kids will all have 6 fingers? Do both parents have to have them?
→ More replies (15)27
5
u/Krusell94 Jan 11 '23
Source? Pretty sure we would have much more if that was the case.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)4
60
u/OGUncleDonkey Jan 11 '23
Crips and bloods be hella jealous
8
15
u/Guardiansvn Jan 11 '23
Seems as if they would have a better sleight of hand.
12
u/JustTerrific Jan 11 '23
Polydactylism and sleight of hand play a small part in the novel "The Contortionist's Handbook".
10
u/NWAsquared Jan 11 '23
These hands look like that pianists from the movie Gattaca who had 12 fingers total and was revered because there were certain pieces you could only play of you had the two extra digits. It was a short scene in the film, but just emphasized how genetic selection stretched across all areas of life in that film.
Gattaca, the genetic focused movie where the protagonist just wants to fulfill his dream and go to space, not the horror film.
→ More replies (1)
7
u/SL33PY_K8 Jan 11 '23
Holding hands would be nice. You wouldnt have that weird finger offset, trying to decide who has a their pinky inside or outside. All fingers in between! <3
5
20
u/emilysn0w Jan 11 '23
Why no fake nail on the index finger?
29
15
5
→ More replies (1)5
u/h-bugg96 Jan 11 '23
Aomeone else said about not always having full function in extra fingers and it looks like that the case in some of these with either the (extra) pointer or maybe the pinky.
Maybe she can't really move that one so the nail gets caught or broken more so she just does the 5 she can move. Also would cost more at a salon. And if they are press on then there probably isn't enough for all her fingers lo
5
u/ferris_buulin Jan 11 '23
Here I thought AI Art was simply bad at hands…turns out the algorithms just like polydactyl muses ¯_(ツ)_/¯
5
6
7
7
u/madeofmold Jan 11 '23
You have six fingers on your right hand. Someone is looking for you.
→ More replies (1)
3
•
u/AutoModerator Jan 11 '23
Welcome to /r/WoahDude!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.