The nature and inheritance of webbed toes in man

Abstract

Abstract Webbing of toes or fingers in man is produced by a local arrest of development, causing retention of the normal embryonic webbing. This type of digital fusion involves only the skin, the skeleton being unaffected. The extensor tendons of the toes may sometimes be fused. Webbed digits occur normally in some marsupials, rodents, and insectivores, in a number of lemurs and catarrhines, and in the siamang and gorilla. They also may occur in varying degree in other Primates, notably Hylobates. An analysis of five new pedigrees together with those already published demonstrates that webbing of toes in man may be inherited in either a mendelian or sex‐linked manner. In one case this character follows the course of the Y‐chromosome.