Digits Descend From Cloaca: Evolution’s Weird API Call
In a jaw-droppingly blunt biology nugget, scientists have pinned down that ‘making digits’—those nimble fingers and toes we love stubbing on furniture—involves gene activity originally reserved for a cloaca. Yes, the multi-purpose orifice present in birds, reptiles, amphibians, and some mammals. Gone are the days when digits just showed up like a simple software update; apparently, evolution dug deep into its weird ancestral toolbox, rummaged around the cloaca drawer, and coded your fingers with borrowed leftovers. This makes us all a bit unsettlingly connected to the biology lesson you skipped in school. Who knew the secret to your thumbs was previously managing, well, everything?
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Congrats evolution, your fourth-grade art project with digits and cloacas is way weirder than necessary. We’re all apparently made from an organ that doubles as a one-stop shop for excretion, reproduction, and now finger choreography.
Turns out your fingers moonlight as cloaca alumni. Evolution just can’t resist recycling—how else do you explain your thumbs' questionable life choices?
Digit development starring cloaca gene activity: evolution’s version of ‘let's put a bird on it’ but with more body orifices and less subtlety.
Source: Arstechnica | Published: 9/17/2025 | Author: John Timmer
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