the.com/webbed feet
Built-in flippers that evolution kept reinventing because paddling beats drowning every single time.
means Feet in which the toes are connected by a membrane of skin, found in ducks, frogs, otters and other animals to help them swim.
from "Web" comes from Old English webb, meaning something woven — the same root behind "weave" and "weaver," and a cousin of words across the Germanic languages for fabric and netting. The image is of skin stretched taut between the toes like cloth on a loom, so a "webbed" foot is one that looks woven together. The spider's web borrowed the same word for the same reason: it's a thing spun and stretched across a gap.
- convergent design
- Evolved separately in ducks, otters, frogs, and more
- human version
- Roughly one in 2,000 people born with webbed toes
- embryo default
- All human hands start webbed before cells die away
- climbing gecko
- Some flying geckos use webbed feet to glide
platypus — australian monotreme with webbed feet that retract to reveal claws for burrowing
mallard duck — common dabbling duck with palmate webbed feet for swimming across ponds and lakes worldwide
otter — semi-aquatic mammal with webbed paws, like the north american river otter hunting in freshwater
frog — amphibian with webbed hind feet for propulsion, found on every continent except antarctica