Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Toe" in English language version.
The thorough investigations of Gegenbaur have shown that the fish's fins [...] are many-toed feet. The various cartilaginous or bony radii that are found in large numbers in each fin correspond to the fingers of toes of the higher Vertebrates. The several joints of each fin-radius correspond to the various parts of the toe. Even in the Dipneusta the fin is of the same construction as in the fishes; it was afterwards gradually evolved into the five-toed form, which we first encounter in the Amphibia. The reduction of the number of toes to six, and then to five, probably took place in the second half of the Devonian period - at the latest, in the subsequent Carboniferous period - in those Dipneusta which we regard as the ancestors of the Amphibia. [...] The fact that the toes number five is of great importance, because they have clearly been transmitted from the Amphibia to all the higher Vertebrates. Man entirely resembles his amphibian ancestors in this respect, and indeed in the whole structure of the bony skeleton of his five-toed extremities. A careful comparison of the skeleton of the frog with our own is enough to show this. [...] There is absolutely no reason why there should be five toes in the fore and hind feet in the lowest Amphibia, the reptiles, and the higher Vertebrates, unless we ascribe it to inheritance from a common stem-form. Heredity alone can explain it. It is true that we find less than five toes in many of the Amphibia and of the higher Vertebrates. But in all these cases we can prove that some of the toes atrophied, and were in time lost altogether.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)