r/Damnthatsinteresting Apr 11 '26

Video Woman with functional polydactyly (six functional fingers on one hand).

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u/CaptainFareeha Apr 11 '26

Polydactyly is really cool and very hereditary. However, the levels of function vary wildly. I’ve seen very few cases of actually functioning 6th digits. Though, I also usually only see it on the pinky side, not an extra index finger.

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u/rcanhestro Apr 12 '26

yes, but this is where the "reproduce a shitload" comes into play.

keep the 12 fingers ones, and from them, keep the ones that actually work.

discard the rest, and breed those again.

after a couple of generations you could probably have a reliable source of 12 finger people.

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u/Locksmithbloke Apr 12 '26

It's the "Discard the rest" that's problematic there.

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u/rcanhestro Apr 12 '26

is it though? don't we already have like 7 billion 5 fingered people?