Long time ago...millions upon millions of years ago...when the Australopithecus ape guys roamed the earth:

What did they do with their toenails? Really. They didn't have enough sense, did they, to clip their nails? So what did they do with those ever-growing nails? Fingernails, too? Did early apes-becoming-men (maybe not) simply use nails for weapons and...weapons? Since they weren't farmers yet and just (instead) prickly-pointed-long-nailed gatherers?

probably, like animals today, their nails were kept short by not wearing shoes. they were worn down by heavy use.

More like broken and torn, I would think. Ugh! Nasty visual of dirty broken, chipped and torn nails. [shudder-e]

I was trying not to think of that. thanks, Connie...

Well, if Mother Nature causes those mommie birds wwh mentioned to neatly turn their little eggs, you'd a thunk that the same natural She would have worked out something a little better than torn nails. Even perpetually growing rodents' teeth don't look torn in the process. Then again, perhaps neatly-groomed nails are a mark of the so-called civilized.

Dear WW: I think it is only birds with big eggs that have to turn them. I also remember the mother duck detecting eggs that had gone bad, and rolling them out of the nest.

i think it was in a V.S.Niapaul (sp.?) book-- that there is a short side essay on 'trade' (maybe in Bend in the River?)in Africa/and the congo..it went on about how 'trading and markets in worked, and what was considered valualbe in the local markets.. how the people there loved steel, and enamaled pots and bowl, that didn't rust, were so durible, and easy to clean, and how they loved nailclippers..-- easier to use than scissors, smaller, and stronger, and do usefull for keeping ones nails clean and neat(there were other trade goods, too, that at first glance seemed odd, but that were also treasured)