Tools or Jewels?

There I did it again! Used my fingernails as tools, not preserving them as jewels to be admired. When I need to scrape a label from a jar my fingernails work much quicker than taking the trouble to find a blade or some metal tool for the job. Isn't that why they became part of my anatomy through complex evolution? To get a job done? And there are other times I revert to my ancestry. I dig in the soil, hoping to avoid cat doodoo, peel oranges, scratch my scalp, and clean my belly button. All with one or several fingernails.
There has been a use for a hard tool at the end of appendages for millions of years. Not always an expected use but added protection to the digital ends that turned out to be a great big asset when it came to foraging for food. All vertebrates have them. Some are more exotic than others. Eagle, hawk and owl claws are vital for capturing prey. Song birds and waterfowl use them for moving about or clutching perches. The same with many reptiles and amphibians. But when it comes to mammals, wow! Look at how natural selection in various habitats and digestive systems brought about ungulates - mammals with hooves. For fingernails? Since someone might as well eat those critters natural selection perfected different toenails on lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
Paleontology and other branches of science find that tetrapods – those are the whole array of animals with backbones and skeletons encased inside some protective skin – emerged on the world 365 million years ago. Imagine that! The source of my nails, whether I use them for tools or works of art, occurred before this species that came to walk upon two legs was defined as hominid. Amazing to say the least. And more awesome than any dividing of the red sea or building a fabulous ark.
I am most happy that metals were discovered and engineering and other technology were developed to fill a room full of useful tools because not everything I want done can be done with my fingernails. But I am most happy that some Hox genes signaled certain proteins way back when and stimulated hormones to put the correct parts on my humble body in the right time and place to become me.
Naomi Sherer