Why does the skin of the fingers and toes wrinkle when wet? A common belief is that when water gets on the skin, it is absorbed through the skin and the outer part of the skin becomes swollen, which causes folds in the skin. But that's not right at all. Rather folded skin is an evolutionary legacy whose main purpose is to increase the grip of the hands and feet under the water i.e. to increase the grip ability!
Not only this, with the help of water you can do welding. Instead, when water gets on the skin of the fingers, the brain makes these folds when the blood vessels adjacent to the skin are compressed. However, this concept was only understood by many in the 1930's when it was seen that when the nerves of the finger become useless, the skin of the finger does not fold when wet. Tests have shown that there is no difference in the grip between the wrinkled skin finger and the normal leather finger when holding a dry object. But wrinkled skin is much more efficient at gripping wet objects. The researchers said that the folded skin helped our ancestors collect food from wet grasslands or river streams. The folds of the toes helped to move well in the rain.
Very informative article tnxs dear