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Name: Burbank School
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Question:
Why do nails grow?


Replies:
Just a wild guess... I believe in our earlier days, we probably used our fingernails for things like tearing meat off of bones (eating) or perhaps even in hunting or killing prey. With the development of society and farming, the hunt and gather activity was much reduced. I suspect earlier in the design of nails, it was probably thought that using the nails heavily would cause them to wear down; nail growth would replace those nails which had been overused. Now the growth of nails still does replace broken nails etc, but the function is I suspect a bit less of a maintenance issue.

Ric
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