Why Do Your Fingers Wrinkle in Water?

A long bath... and your fingertips turn into prunes. But it's not because your skin soaks up water. What really makes your fingers wrinkle, why doesn't the rest of your skin do it, and are wrinkly fingers actually built for grip? Sources: Kareklas, Nettle & Smulders, Biology Letters 2013 · Haseleu et al., PLoS ONE 2014 · Changizi et al., Brain, Behavior and Evolution 2011 · O'Riain, BMJ 1973 · German & Laytin, Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials 2025 #wrinklyfingers #body #science