Pruney fingers have been confusing scientists for years, almost as much as the popularity of Salad Fingers. You see, they don’t form because your skin absorbs too much water: if your circulation in your hand is cut off, or the nerves in your hand are severed, they don’t prune. This implies they form because of some nervous system response…but why?
To this trivial question, we may finally have an answer: they’re nature’s grippy pads in slippery situations. The wrinkles force water away from the finger as it presses down.
Who cares? Enough people that the researcher who proposed this theory is going to have to demonstrate it happens to other species as well…which it seems to. So one of life’s mysteries, finally answered.
Now about that whole “cancer” thing, guys…
[ via the fingerlings at Geekosystem ]