16+ Fascinating Pictures That Showed Us The Body Is Full Of Surprises

Updated September 8, 2021

For the most part, the dominant genetic traits within a family can leave a fairly clear road map for how a new baby is going to turn out.

But while this can often result in children who look a lot like their parents, it's pretty hard to predict how exactly the genetic information of two families will end up mashing together to make one of us. And that's not even taking into account that each of those families has some rarely-expressed genetic features that can potentially crop up in any new birth.

So while that goes a long way to explain the little bodily differences that we're about to see, it also makes it easy to marvel at how rarely we see them.

As you may suspect from the scarring, this hand has had some work done on it since this person was born.

Reddit | COLDRAMENYT

And according to them, that was undertaken to remove an extra thumb that had grown here when they were born.

This is subtle enough that we probably wouldn't notice it outside of this picture, but I can see it affecting a lot in day-to-day life.

Reddit | ninstarbenreed

If you can't tell what I'm talking about, this person describes themselves as having one front tooth on the bottom row.

As we can see, that doesn't mean they lost any, but rather that they've always had a completely different arrangement down there.

I wonder if it would feel weird for the bottom row to match after a lifetime of eating like this.

If you look to the right of this ear, you might be able to spot a tiny hole in the skin.

Reddit | RowanKon

According to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, this is known as a preauricular pit.

Although it's not known to cause any hearing problems and is only rarely inked to any other genetic conditions, it can end up being a site for cysts, infections, and abscesses. A chronic run of such infections may lead doctors to close it up, but this is otherwise not often necessary.

Although the quality of this picture makes it a little hard to see what's different about this person's finger, I can guarantee that touching it would make that difference obvious.

Reddit | ikbenemi

That's because they only have half of a fingernail on this digit. The rest of it is simply composed of skin.

As they put it, "The nail part feels like a normal nail, and the skin part like normal skin."

Again, this picture is a little blurry so this likely looks like a fairly unremarkable birthmark.

Reddit | Joey_your_ur_mom

However, it turns out that something a little rarer is afoot here.

As this person's doctor apparently told them, they were born with two extra nipples that didn't form well enough for us to recognize them.

Considering that this person's mother had a club thumb, there were probably at least some expectation that they would as well.

Reddit | 10pumpsclassic

However, reality still managed to have a little surprise in store because it turns out that both of their thumbs turned out that way.

Of course, you've probably heard that club feet can be discovered at birth as well and those can keep having an affect even after medical intervention.

Reddit | mr_fett01

As this person said, they had three operations to straighten their right foot about by the time they were six years old.

And while those were successful enough to improve their mobility, it still left the foot in question two shoe sizes smaller than the other.

We're not seeing a line of saliva here. This woman was born with an extra piece that connected her tongue to her gums.

Reddit | ImWorthlessOk

While it's not exactly unheard of for this condition to develop at birth, doctors usually respond by removing the connection.

It's unclear why that didn't happen in this case or the extent to which her life has been affected by this connection.

If we were to say this child has black hair, that would only mostly be true.

Reddit | gemini_24

Because ever since he was born, he's had this patch of blond in his hair. The way this turned out, it's almost like he started life with highlights.

If one of these thumbs looks more finger-like than thumb-like to you, it turns out there's a reason for that.

Reddit | pujia47

This guy was actually born with six fingers on one hand, which would have an obvious effect on the way each digit forms.

But if this was the main result, that development could have been a lot messier.

As the uploader described it, this dog was born with "upside down feet."

Reddit | Baybonski

And that indeed means that its feet are always like this. Fortunately, it's apparently not quite as painful for the pooch as it looks, especially since it was born with an additional pad on what would normally be the top of the paw.

And more importantly, this is reportedly a happy and comfortable dog.

Although it may seem like this person broke their thumb, it's just as easy for it to not look like this.

Reddit | yatone

That's because they were born with some hyper-mobility in their thumbs so they can make them bend both forward and backward with about the same level of ease.

We tend to associate these kinds of ears with elves, but there's nothing mythical about them.

Although it doesn't happen too often, it's entirely possible for someone to be born with similarly pointed ears.

It's hard not to wonder if the idea behind elves was simply inspired by real life when we see photos like this.

Some people can be born with missing digits but even those who have all of them may not always feel like they do.

Reddit | Gearcortex

As we can see, each of this person's feet has two toes that were fused together to varying degrees. This is due to a condition known as syndactyly.

This woman has a freckle in her eye that's known as a "nevus" among doctors.

Reddit | duck8788

Nevi are usually harmless according to the American Academy of Opthalmology, but it's possible that their shapes and sizes can change when they're exposed to ultraviolet rays.

For that reason, this woman's ophthalmologist recommended wearing sunglasses. As for the AAO, they generally recommend doing that whether you have a nevus or not.

If something seems missing from this thumb, it likely helps to know that it has no knuckles.

Reddit | Silas_26

As the uploader said, this is true of both of their thumbs and neither of them can bend as a result.

One commenter was apparently curious as to how they use a smartphone but they replied that the real problems come when they use writing utensils or play video games.

As the uploader put it, "My wife just gave birth to our firstborn, and me and my son both have the same weird genetic abnormality where we have an extra large space between our first and second toes."

Reddit | undefined_reference

But while some of the conditions we've seen thus far seem like they'd make life harder, this one might actually make things a little easier for both father and son.

Although the gap between my big toe and the nearest one isn't quite as large as this one, I have found it pretty useful when I need to pick a small object up from under a table.

It may be a little hard to tell but this person was born with a gray spot in their eye.

Reddit | Puzzledpumpkinuwu

Since they don't appear to have any problems with their eyes or a lack of any particular building block of the body, I guess it's just one of those things rather than a sign of any medical issue.

Although we've mostly talked about rare congenital developments that can sometimes appear on the body, this picture shows evidence of something we don't often see but that just about every cat goes through.

Reddit | samodepo

This is apparently a cat's baby tooth. And as for why we don't often see them? Apparently, that's because they usually swallow and pass them before we notice they've lost a tooth.

I should warn you that we're about to see something a little gross but how much you recognize it apparently depends on demographics.

Reddit | LoreleiOpine

This is apparently an average amount of earwax that builds up in this person's year annually. And if you're not used to seeing such dry, flaky earwax, that's because it's apparently only present in about 2% of Caucasians.

According to Livescience, it's significantly more common among various Asian populations, as well as Pacific Islanders and Native Americans.

Filed Under:

People & Society