Five Fingered Freaks

A few weeks ago, one of my fingers got stuck in a taxi cab door and consequently broke. I was pissed and in pain, but I shrugged it off and walked into the House of Blues to watch the Pepper concert anyway. While I love the band's music, my mind kept on straying from the concert and a question kept repeating itself inside my head: Why do we have five fingers on each hand? I understand the reasoning behind having two hands; in case one is occupied you still have a vacant one, just like in an airplane. But five fingers? Having that many fingers seems excessive.

Remember the weekday morning cartoon "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?". Well those crime-fighting ninjas only had three fingers on each hand, yet they still kicked butt. Likewise, people in cartoons only have four fingers, yet they can still play sports, as illustrated (pun intended) in Rocketpower, and play cards, as shown in Yu-GI-OH!, just like normal humans. So why do we humans have five?

Maybe long ago people kept losing their fingers to things such as animals, frostbite, and just plain stupidity (I really wonder how many fingers were lost in the quest for harnessing fire), so maybe Evolution decided that five was the perfect amount of fingers for humans. In any case, someone should research this fascinating topic. Of course I would, but typing and looking things up on the internet is just too much work for someone with a broken finger.