Why do our fingers and toes get wrinkled when they are in water for long?

The common myth about the wrinkling of our skin is that it swells up because of water. But that is not so. Your hands and toes wrinkle because the sebum on your skin sheds off due to your prolonged presence in water. Sebum is like a coating on our skin which acts as a lubricator. It allows the water on our skin to slip away instead of letting the skin soak it. Its shedding off allows the skin to soak this water due to which our fingers and toes get wrinkled.

Another explanation is even more interesting, as it is related to us human’s evolutionary skills. According to the latest research, it is the reaction of our nervous system and blood vessels. They make the skin of hands and feet wrinkled as our skin is more slippery when wet. So the biology says we have evolved enough to create a grip with our skin to avoid slipping off.

Our nerve cells react to our prolonged presence in water and makes our fingers and toes wrinkle so that chances of our slipping are much less. So try spending more time in pools and bath tubs, maybe this will make us more adaptive. :P

Also Read- Can the shape of fingers predict our characteristics?