[quantadev]

Women's feet have grown 30% since 1960. Look it up. Doesn't mean the trend will continue, it just means evolution can indeed happen very rapidly under certain circumstances, and for primates to keep long toes for a very long time even after coming down from the trees makes some sense. Probably much more efficient to run thru mud, etc.

[AngryData]

Wouldn't nutrition, diet, and lifestyle changes be a far more likely explination than evolution? What mechanism within the last 80 years could possibly be the driving factor behind evolutionary changes in peoples feet size? Its not like people in the 1930s were dieing due to overly large feet, nor has foot size been a significant factor in mating sucess. People are taller today too, but that isn't because tall people use to die more often or was once considered unattractive, it is mostly because of better nutrition thanks to far more varied and reliable diets.

[quantadev]

It's very likely that there's a simple switch (i.e. not much more than a couple of mutations required) which governs finger/toe length in primates. For example, did you know all the DNA for growing a "Lizard Leg" (the ENTIRE leg) is still in all snakes, but just just not activated, because one other mutation is blocking it?

There are many known genetic conditions that we see even in modern times, caused by one or two mutations which can cause very long fingers/toes, and people in this thread are arguing that even in 23000 years nature can't land on that mutation and stick to it, _especially_ when we _know_ the DNA for it is likely still there because we're all apes 98% identical to monkeys for example, which have the long toe thing.

[AlotOfReading]

I don't know why you're on about this, but our foot shape has been essentially static across the entirety of genus Homo. The difference in time between us and them is an imperceptible rounding error compared to the many millions of years since bipedalism evolved. These people looked like us, wore clothes, spoke languages, etc. If you teleported one of their infants forward and raised it, it would be virtually indistinguishable from a modern person until you did genetic testing.

[quantadev]

If feet can change 30% in 50 years then toes can certainly change that much in thousands. And I'm not even saying it was worldwide, just the people who made those mud footprints. And that 30% isn't even all humans either, it's bizarrely only women.

Evolution can happen rapidly sometimes. Lookup "island rule" or "Foster's rule", which is also about this. Changing environmental conditions can rapidly increase evolution rates, specifically for "size" attribute.