Thanks! It took me a while, but I finally found that "oligodactyly" is the word for too few digits. You can now dazzle on your next crossword puzzle, scrabble game, or spelling bee! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligodactyly This small, isolated tribe in Africa has the middle 3 toes missing, apparently without functional handicap. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadoma The 1 in 500 incidence for polydactyly is higher than I would have guessed, but it is indicative of the ongoing evolutionary pressures. The article for oligodactyly doesn't indicate incidence, so I would guess it is much lower than 1 in 500. At 10:23 AM 12/20/2010, Adam P. Goucher wrote:
Evolution is happy to make huge mistakes about all kinds of endocrine & mitochondrial diseases, but not about the # of digits.
What about polydactyly (wow, a word with three 'y's!), where people are born with 6 digits on each limb?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydactyly
Sincerely,
Adam P. Goucher