[Atheist]

I went to the French side of the island yesterday to watch the sunset and have a few beers. As the bartender handed me my beer, I noticed he had just 4 digits on his right hand (3 fingers and a thumb). I then noticed his other hand was the same way. They looked like cartoon hands (you ever notice almost all cartoon hands have only 3 fingers). The other interesting thing is that his hands didn't look deformed. They were perfectly shaped, just missing a digit on each one. I've seen my share of people with extra digits, but rarely missing ones.

When I visited Grenada, it seemed there were a disproportionate number of people with an extra finger next to their pinky finger. Usually the kind that doesn't have any bone. It just dangled off the side of their hand.

I also recall a guy that worked at the cinema in Georgetown (D.C.) that had fully working extra thumbs on both hands. Kinda freaked me out at first.

I guess polydactyly isn't as uncommon as we'd think.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

I just hear about people with 6 fingers last night as my friend works with someone who does. He said she has a small pinky finger that has a nail and she even paints the nail.

Apparently it is more common in the Caribbean which where she also happens to be from.

If it was me I would chop it off.

[nonhuman]

When I was a kid, my soccer coach was missing the ring finger on one of his hands. Lost it to a circular saw. That's about it though.

Oh, and I know a guy in China who sorta has an extra thumb on one hand, except it's fused with his other thumb so it looks like he just has an extra wide thumb (it's obvious when you see it that there's a second set of bones in there though, and there are two thumbnails as well).

[Oisín]

I’ve never seen or heard of anyone with more or less than five fingers on each hand, not counting of course things seen on telly and the Internet, and people who’ve had fingers chopped off (my grandfather, for example, had only four fingers on right hand, but that was due to some rather unfortunate handling of some heavy machinery in his young days).

[Atheist]

I get the feeling that in developed countries, the extra digit is removed at birth. That may be why it's more evident in developing countries. Based on some unscientific googling, it seems that it occurs in anywhere from 1 in 500 to 1 in 1000 births. More common with Blacks (and the Amish) for some reason.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Actually my friends' husband who just moved from the Dominican said that people with the extra fingers are considered to have Voodoo powers so they are a bit cautious of them.

[ajprice]

Me! 6 fingers and toes. The fingers and toes were removed as a baby, still got the toes . Its a family thing, my dad and brother also have 6 toes.

[Atheist]

Originally Posted by ajprice 

Me! 6 fingers and toes. The fingers and toes were removed as a baby, still got the toes . Its a family thing, my dad and brother also have 6 toes.

How cool. Does your extra digit have bone? I'd imagine if not, it could prove a little dangerous walking without shoes on.

[Mithras]

The rate of polydactyly is many times higher among black Americans than white Americans; I think the rate is almost 1%...

Yes, here's the seminal study. If you're not on an academic network, the article is summarized here -- rates of polydactyly are

Rates per 1000 live births:

[Oisín]

^ Use the codex tag instead of the code tag.

Edit: Or an image, yes.

[ajprice]

Yep, full set of bones in the feet.

The finger on my left hand had the full set of bones to my wrist, the eight hand was just the finger bones, no bone below the knuckle. So my left hand has a stitches scar down the side, and the right hand has these 2 little bumps, like skin coloured spots on the side of my hand.

[Randman]

My father lost the middle finger and half of the ring finger on his right hand while in the military during the Korean war.

[Eug]

When I was a kid, I heard about this guy called 88 Fingers Louie.

[mrtew]

I'd sure like to see a picture of the bartender's 'cartoon' hands. That sounds really cool looking. I can find tons of pictures of people with extra digits on the internets but I can't find a picture of what you describe! (this picture is as close as I could get) Go back and take a picture of him and post it!

[subego]

Originally Posted by mrtew 

I'd sure like to see a picture of the bartender's 'cartoon' hands. That sounds really cool looking.

Makeup artist Dick Smith had his finger torn off and some pretty good reconstructive surgery.



It was his ring finger, his pinky is just folded against his pants.

[Tiresias]

Polydactyly is not that uncommon.

"The condition has an incidence of 1 in every 500 live births."

As a doctor I can tell you that in most countries they are routinely removed at birth, along with supernumerary nipples.

[Jawbone54]

[Laminar]

There's a guy working at the auto parts store across the street from my place that doesn't have any clearly defined digits on his right hand, just a claw-like thing. It looks like of like a thumb plus a combined pinky and ring finger...kind of weird.

[andi*pandi]

^I met a friend of a friend who had that. (Thalidamine? except she wasn't old enough.) Her hands and feet were claws. Yet she managed very well.

[MarkLT1]

No extra digits, but my father has a webbed toe on each foot. The toe next to the big one, is connected to its smaller neighbor, so that it looks like 1 giant toe, with 2 knuckles side-by-side, and two toenails.

As a kid, he always told us it made him swim faster.

[Shaddim]

Originally Posted by Atheist 

I also recall a guy that worked at the cinema in Georgetown (D.C.) that had fully working extra thumbs on both hands.

I'd give almost anything for that.

[Dakar the Fourth]

I'm going to pretend that design's sexually themed thread has me thinking along these lines, but part of me is surprised there isn't a website dedicated to women with extra digits performing certain acts...

[Mithras]

Might check on a rule 34 site.