Are little toes really necessary?

I was looking at my little toes (don’t know technical word for these) the previous weekend and I can help thinking that they serve no purpose and I believe that one day man will gradually evolve without these. Do you know anyone that have lost only their little toe/ toes and how does it affect them.

you can't fall over with those feet

Your little toes are called 5th metatarsals I believe. I think they have something to do with balance. I have both of mine, though I have lost the toenails on them several times. The first time hurt realllly badly, but after than there was pretty much no pain.

The only time I notice my little toes is if someone steps on one.

Toes in general are overrated. We do not run around barefoot climbing trees any more, separated phalanges are no longer necessary. Keep your big toe and let the others combine to a single clump so you can still wear sandals.

The metatarsal is actually the bone that runs from the heel to the respective toe (as I found out when I broke one of them).

Sarabyrd, why not lop off the foot altogether and replace it with this little jobby?

The question of whether they will evolve away is not only a matter of whether they necessary are not. I mean, would you shag someone with no little toe? As if! Hence people with no little toes will never be able to pass on their genes, and therefore the little toe will stay with us..

My great grandad apparently had his toes shot off in the war and he couldn't stand up so we must need them for balance

Then it's the 5th tarsal. I always get the metatarsal and tarsal backwards.

Pretty sure they are called phalanges in the feet and hands...

Edit:
Dictionary.com came up with the goods:

7. Anatomy, Zoology. any of the bones of the fingers or toes.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/phalanges%20

I've always understood that you can lose all your toes except the big one and still keep your balance.

Who finds all these friggin toes then?

Guess why the little toe is so small?
It is in the process of being removed.

My mother lost her toes to gangrene, and she could still chase after us kids round the house, allbeit a bit slower

Oh great, another fucking Diplom Blödsinnserfindungwissenschaft on the board. Please cite your fucking proof or shut the fuck up. The 5th tarsal and metatarsal are not disappearing and they are very important for balance. The result of incompentent German medical handling a few years ago led to my having an an operation that was also handled badly. My fifth metatarsal dexter is about 1cm shorter than it was. Thanks to that I have piss poor lateral balance on the right and even though you can get used to it, the centre of mass range is considerably reduced.

woof.

Calm down, I was joking.

I for one am against the mega-toe prospect. If the skin of all our toes merged, we'd need extra skin down there to allow the toe bones to spread out like flippers when we rolled forward taking a step, so that in repose we'd have like a weird giant toe sac with floppy skin. No thanks. Plus I like pedicures. So I suppose I'm pleased about evolution not being instantaneous in the case of toes.

all I know is that toes help with balance and a loss of them messes that up...

Wahoo I too have lost a toe nails, but my big toe...owwwwwwwWWWWW Yea not once, or twice, but three times!!!

You have three big toes? I am intrigued!

no no no...lol...I have lost the nail on my big toe 3 times, twice on the left once on the right...

Ok, you bunch of darwin boobie birds.

We do not lose we we do not use. Evolution is the selection of characteristics that improve the possibility of those characteristics to be passed on to the next generation. Only if wearing tight shoes caused sterility in a significant part of the population would the possibility of a toeless mutation evolve into a dominant genetic trait. Toes you have and it is likely your children's children's will have them too. Until we become pure beings of energy.

However, I have not fully formed little toes, from birth, with nice tiny nails - yet my offspring are quite normal.

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