Dactyly


In biology, dactyly is the arrangement of on the hands, feet, or sometimes wings of a tetrapod animal. It comes from the Greek word δακτυλος = "finger".
Sometimes the ending "-dactylia" is used. The derived adjectives end with "-dactyl" or "-dactylous".

As a normal feature

Pentadactyly

Pentadactyly = "five" and δάκτυλος is the condition of having five digits on each limb. It is traditionally believed that all living tetrapods are descended from an ancestor with a pentadactyl limb, although many species have now lost or transformed some or all of their digits by the process of evolution. However, this viewpoint was challenged by Stephen Jay Gould in his 1991 essay "Eight Little Piggies", where he pointed out polydactyly in early tetrapods and described the specializations of digit reduction. Despite the individual variations listed below, the relationship is to the original five-digit model.
In reptiles, the limbs are pentadactylous.

Tetradactyly

Tetradactyly is the condition of having four digits on a limb, as in many amphibians, birds, and theropod dinosaurs. Some mammals also exhibit tetradactyly.

Tridactyly

Tridactyly is the condition of having three digits on a limb, as in the rhinoceros and ancestors of the horse such as Protohippus and Hipparion. These all belong to the Perissodactyla. Some birds also have three toes, including emus, bustards, and quail.

Didactyly

Didactyly or bidactyly is the condition of having two digits on each limb, as in the Hypertragulidae and two-toed sloth, Choloepus didactylus. In humans this name is used for an abnormality in which the middle digits are missing, leaving only the thumb and fifth finger, or big and little toes. Cloven-hoofed mammals have only two digits, as do ostriches.

Monodactyly

Monodactyly is the condition of having a single digit on a limb, as in modern horses and other equidae. Functional monodactyly, where the weight is supported on only one of multiple toes, can also occur, as in the theropod dinosaur Vespersaurus.

As a congenital defect

Syndactyly

is a condition where two or more digits are fused together. It occurs normally in some mammals, such as the siamang and most diprotodontid marsupials such as kangaroos. It occurs as an unusual condition in humans.

Polydactyly

is when a limb has more than the usual number of digits. This can be:
is having too few digits when not caused by an amputation. It is sometimes incorrectly called hypodactyly or confused with aphalangia, the absence of the phalanx bone on one or more digits. When all the digits on a hand or foot are absent, it is referred to as adactyly.

Ectrodactyly

, also known as split-hand malformation, is the congenital absence of one or more central digits of the hands and feet. Consequently, it is a form of oligodactyly. News anchor Bree Walker is probably the best-known person with this condition, which affects about one in 91,000 people. It is conspicuously more common in the Vadoma in Zimbabwe.

Clinodactyly

, is a medical term describing the curvature of a digit in the plane of the palm, most commonly the fifth finger towards the adjacent fourth finger. It is a fairly common isolated anomaly which often goes unnoticed, but also occurs in combination with other abnormalities in certain genetic syndromes, such as Down Syndrome, Turner Syndrome and Cornelia de Lange syndrome.

In birds

Anisodactyly

Anisodactyly is the most common arrangement of digits in birds, with three toes forward and one back. This is common in songbirds and other perching birds, as well as hunting birds like eagles, hawks, and falcons. These types of legs help with perching and/or climbing and clinging.
This occurs in Passeriformes, Columbiformes, falconiformes, accipitriformes, Galliformes and a vast majority of birds.

Syndactyly

Syndactyly, as it occurs in birds, is like anisodactyly, except that the third and fourth toes, or three toes, are fused together, as in the belted kingfisher. This is characteristic of Coraciiformes.

Zygodactyly

Zygodactyly is an arrangement of digits in birds and chameleons, with two toes facing forward and two back. This arrangement is most common in arboreal species, particularly those that climb tree trunks or clamber through foliage. Zygodactyly occurs in the parrots, woodpeckers, cuckoos, and some owls. Zygodactyl tracks have been found dating to 120–110 Ma, 50 million years before the first identified zygodactyl fossils. All Psittaciformes, Cuculiformes, the majority of Piciformes and the osprey are zygodactyl.

Heterodactyly

Heterodactyly is like zygodactyly, except that digits 3 and 4 point forward and digits 1 and 2 point back. This is found only in trogons.

Pamprodactyly

Pamprodactyly is an arrangement in which all four toes point forward, outer toes often if not regularly reversible. It is a characteristic of swifts and mousebirds.

Chameleons

The feet of chameleons are organized into bundles of a group of two and a group of three digits which oppose one another to grasp branches in a pincer-like arrangement. This condition has been called zygodactyly or didactyly, however, the specific arrangement in chameleons does not fit either definition. The feet of the front limbs in chameleons, for instance, are organized into a medial bundle of digits 1, 2 and 3, and a lateral bundle of digits 4 and 5, while the feet of the hind limbs are organized into a medial bundle of digits 1 and 2, and a lateral bundle of digits 3, 4 and 5. Zygodactyly by definition, on the other hand, involves digits 1 and 4 opposing digits 2 and 3, while chameleons do not exhibit this arrangement in either front or hind limbs. Further, didactyly involves only two digits per limb, while chameleons have five digits, despite being organized into two opposing bundles.

Aquatic tetrapods

In many secondarily aquatic vertebrates, the non-bony tissues of the forelimbs and/or hindlimbs are fused into a single flipper. Some remnant of each digit generally remains under the soft tissue of the flipper, though digit reduction gradually occurs such as in baleen whales. Marine mammals evolving flippers represents a classic example of convergent evolution, and by some analyses, parallel evolution.
Full webbing of the digits in the manus and/or pes is present in a number of aquatic tetrapods. Such animals include marine mammals, marine reptiles, and flightless aquatic birds such as penguins. Hyperphalangy, or an increase in the number of phalanges beyond ancestral mammal and reptile conditions, is present in modern cetaceans and extinct marine reptiles.

Schizodactyly

Schizodactyly is a primate term for grasping and clinging with the second and third digit, instead of the thumb and second digit.