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Contents 1 What happens if you burn them? 2 Infections? 3 Fingertip sensitivity 4 Disambiguation for Fingernails album 5 Evolution of fingernails 6 Q: What's the white part called? 7 Nail disorders 8 Pictures 9 List of species with nails 10 Purpose 11 Complete regrowth 12 Nasty Images 13 Purpose- Taping nails? 14 Imprecisions 15 Purpose 16 Bitten nail 17 Removed questionable quote without proper citation. 18 Nail Shape 19 Adhesive 20 Isn't the nail just another vestigial structure?=

[edit] What happens if you burn them?

Does anyone know what happens if you burn fingernails? Is the smoke harmful in anyway shape or form? 69.243.88.134 03:47, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Infections?

I removed the following from the article, as to me atleast it seems quite dubious and implausible: "Some viruses can infect the toe if not cleaned out at least once a week with peroxide." As far as I know, people are not suddenly falling prey to random toe infections at large because they don't treat their feet with hydrogen peroxide once a week. So, I might be wrong about this, but seeing as just about no publication on foot hygiene recommends this as a regular activity, it likely is misinformation. I personally find the wording to be problematic, as it gives the idea that everyone should be doing it regardless of what condition they and their toes are in. --80.221.135.214 03:31, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fingertip sensitivity

Nails provide fingertips with greater sensitivity. Maybe that should be put in the article.--67.149.129.239 19:49, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Or maybe you should bother providing a source for your statement - how can this possibly be true? 87.113.91.30 18:20, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

He's actually right. I experience it quite often. ~ UBeR 01:01, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Disambiguation for Fingernails album

If I'm searching Wikipedia for the album fingernails, I'll just get redirected to Nail (anatomy). Could there be a disambig. page somewhere that makes the album article easier to find?

[edit] Evolution of fingernails

From an evolutionary perspective, why do we have fingernails? --NeuronExMachina 03:33, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)

They make it much easier to grip & tear things. Try peeling an orange without them :-)

(Also useful for de-lousing others, which is a major part of social interaction for some primates, and may have been for our ancestors.)

Toenails are less useful for us; I imagine those are a vestige of our tree-climbing days. Possibly the mechanism by which they're formed makes it difficult to lose them without losing fingernails too. --Calair 04:13, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I don't buy the protection explanation, as I've suffered horrible nail-related injuries i'd have never suffered if my fingers were the same as, say, my elbows.

I think the question is best answered if one thinks about what advantages nails afford primates that claws would not. One major advantage is that nails don't get in the way of our traction-treaded fingers as much as claws would, which is important for a group that uses its fingers to grasp things rather than digging its claws into surfaces. There's probably a million different applications for blunted (non-clawed) fingertips; since the earliest primates had claws and yet modern primates do not, it's relatively safe to assume that blunted fingertips with fingerprints (another primate-specific trait) were/are better for the primate lifestyle. --Corvun 14:31, Mar 18, 2005 (UTC)

Also, it would be nice to see some info on hooves here. Hoof redirects to claw, where it says that a hoof is a nail that is large enought to walk on. Apparently being a nail that is large enough to walk on is the only information Wikipedia has to offer on hooves. No info on the evolution of the hoof, common features of hooves, cloven hooves vs. er, the other kind. Nothing. I'd add some info myself, but I really have very little knowledge of the subject (I came to this page hoping to find something out, perhaps to give myself an idea of where to start looking or what sort of terms to research). --Corvun 14:31, Mar 18, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Q: What's the white part called?

The "nail plate", according to the article, is the name for the translucent part of the fingernail. What about the white part, past the nail plate, that people trim when they "cut their fingernails"? What's that called? Why is it colored differently? Why does it hurt when you cut the translucent part, but not the white part? -- Creidieki 02:19, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

That would be called the "nail", and it's colored differently because there's no pink, raw flesh underneath it. It doesn't hurt because it has no nerve endings, like the raw flesh under the nail plate. The flesh, called the "nail bed", that lies beneath the nail plate is actually much more reddish when not covered by the nail plate. The nail plate actually isn't any more transluscent than the nail; think about the fact that you can clearly see the dirt beneath the "white part" of your nail when your fingernails get dirty. The nail is just the part of the nail plate that grows forward off of the nail bed. --Corvun 06:52, August 16, 2005 (UTC)

Ok, but this should be put in the article, not here. Preferrably, with citations, just to make it clear that this information is not simply an opinion, but a fact. 201.79.84.164 23:51, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

The white part is called the free edge, and yes it doesn't hurt because there are no nerve endings, though there is another white part, the lunula, near the cuticle, which is part of the nail matrix you can see that produces the nail The snare 04:12, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Isn't the "raw flesh", or nail bed called the quick, like in animal claws? That's what I heard.--Maier 03 21:26, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nail disorders

Can we include some info on nail disorders, such as clubbing and beau's lines?Turidoth 06:08, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Pictures

Can someone please upload some new pictures to show the anatomy of the nail. The one's for the 24 yo male, look bitten to death an disgusting. They don't have to be a pretty woman's hand by any means, but come on. - 146.169.51.131 17:39, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

There isn't even a need for pictures. Anybody who typed in Wikipedia knows what fingernails look like.

[edit] List of species with nails

Can someone add a list of species that have nails? —Lowellian (reply) 17:56, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Purpose

Is there any point in having nails? I mean, in nature, do they have any real use? Or are they just an evolutionary left-over? Rusty2005 15:50, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Fingernails agreat for picking up small objects. PrometheusX303 13:53, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Complete regrowth

The article states that fingernails take 3 to 6 months to regrow completely. The leukonychia page states 8 months. Which is correct? PrometheusX303 15:13, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nasty Images

Those pictures are disgusting.

[edit] Purpose- Taping nails?

"If one were to tape over one's fingernails and try to carry on with your normal day, one would find it difficult, if not impossible to grip many things."

Is this a fact? Who would do this? For Wikipedia, shouldn't we try for more. Who does this? Factual and objective?

I have a feeling the tape would have to cover the entire fingertip and not just the nail. Maybe it wasn't completely thought-out. My nails don't even extend out over my fingertips.

I really want to know, exactlly why is it that God gave us nails? It's a question that i have had for quite a bit now!

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/columns/?article=BN_fingernails I am a little unsure about the part about taping them, maybe a better example, would be wearing gloves, you can't grip things as well The snare 04:10, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Imprecisions

"In some West European cultures (mainly Portugal) youth grow their little finger and thumb fingernails long, both men and female alike."

That's not true. That custom exists in some older segments of the portuguese population. However, "youth" definitely don't do that.

without a nail, the skin would harden and desensitize within a few days - False. I've lost a toenail recently, and the skin remained sensitive until enough keratin was secreted to form a new nail. --Lev 19:51, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Purpose

I removed this

Human nails have several purposes: they protect the sensitive skin underneath the nail (nail bed)

in fact this is up side down.The skin beneath our nails is normal skin that you find any wher in your body.The problem is that this skin is never in direct contact with the outside world.As a result it oversensitises.It's like the pain of phantom limb of cuten limbs.--Pixel ;-) 00:27, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

• "Human nails have several purposes: they help us grip small objects and scratch."

Do toe nails serve a purpose?

Actually, I got that partially wrong, the nails, help us grip and scratch, but they protect the bone, not the skin under the nail.(unsigned)

Removed spaces at from of "quoted area". Lmcelhiney 16:32, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bitten nail

Why are the fingernails in the sample picture look like they were just bitten?

[edit] Removed questionable quote without proper citation.

Removed:

[[Shridhar Chillal]] holds the world record for the longest fingernails. They haven't been cut since [[1958]], and in [[2005]] they measured 7.21 metres (about 150 cm per nail). (Source: Guinness WR)

I think that if this is properly cited, it should be placed in Triva, not Culture.

Lmcelhiney 16:31, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nail Shape

I've noticed that people of different ethnicities tend to have certain shape, proportion and curvature. It's simple genetics, yet googling reveals nothing of note. Does anyone have any links?

[edit] Adhesive

What holds the nail plate to the nail bed? --Pascal666 01:14, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Isn't the nail just another vestigial structure?=

I mean it makes sense to belive they are vestigial claws on humans. I wonder if anyone has any info on this so that we can add it on the article. Don't add it now, because is just a personal observation from me at this point.Nnfolz 22:43, 20 March 2007 (UTC)