[Jim_Curtis]

Sturdy shoes first came into widespread use between 40,000 and 26,000 years ago, according to a US scientist.Humans' small toes became weaker during this time, says physical anthropologist Erik Trinkaus, who has studied scores of early human foot bones. He attributes this anatomical change to the invention of rugged shoes, that reduced our need for strong, flexible toes to grip and balance.

This is absurd. People stopped growing strong toes because shoes came along? No one could make that argument with a straight face. They would need to argue that strong toed people were not sexually desirable so didn't pass along their strong toes...that would at least make evolutionary sense.

[GoLightly]

First question, which kind of toes are recessive & which are dominant? Second question, is it different for the different populations?

Before shoes, weak toed people would get killed off in greater rates, cuz they ran slower when the beasty chased a tribe, so fewer people would pass along weak toes. After shoes, more weak toe people would live to reproduce. Could be that smart weak toe people invented shoes, giving smart weak toe people an advantage over all strong toe people & stupid weak toe people.

[elmer fudd]

"This is absurd. People stopped growing strong toes because shoes came along? No one could make that argument with a straight face. They would need to argue that strong toed people were not sexually desirable so didn't pass along their strong toes...that would at least make evolutionary sense."

It's NOT an evolutionary argument. The claim is that people stopped growing strong toes because with the advent of shoes their toes no longer got the same amount of exercise. Presumably, we've still got the genes for big strong toes and if we were to spend our lives barefoot running through the forest and climbing trees and rocks all day we'd have big, strong toes again.

[Domestic Church]

"...strong toed people were not sexually desirable..."

ROFLOL!