> You need toes because we walk and run on two legs. Bipedal movement is tricky at best, and the toes are absolutely necessary for fluid ambulatory motion. If we had four (or more) legs to balance upon, we could conceivably get away with having only a single, hard, toeless hoof on each foot à la horsey, as you suggest.

As a side note to this thread, horses do have toes. The hoof is their middle toe which has grown to function as an entire foot. Their other toes are little vestigial bones up in their leg somewhere.

Brunnen-"so horses run around on tiptoe all the time"G