Wisconsin kitten with 29 toes breaks world record for most toes on a cat
Maine Coon named Erebus Anomaly breaks previous record of 28 toes held for over two decades after overcoming illness
A Maine Coon kitten from Wisconsin overcame a bout with pneumonia to break a 24-year-old world record for most toes on a cat, setting the new mark at 29.
Erebus Anomaly’s unique story received US national media attention on Monday, when ABC’s World News Now program recounted what one of his owners called a “miraculous” recovery from illness in his infancy – and the subsequent Guinness World Record that he clinched.
Erebus’s unprecedented wealth of toes is evidently attributed to a genetic trait, polydactyly, that causes some cats to be born with extra phalanges and – according to a 2016 article in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery – is relatively common in Maine Coons.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/25/wisconsin-kitten-29-toes-world-recordOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
6 replies
I completely misread that as a cat setting a record by breaking 29 of its toes and I am so glad I was wrong
I've always loved how the word polydactyl sounds like a a dinosaur
Also I for one welcome cats getting opposable thumbs and taking over
Pterodactyl just means wing-finger. Polydactyl means many-finger.
Nothing more dinosaury than fingers!
That makes so much sense. Thanks for that
Oh man, there is a record for that? Pawsitraction would have won that if they were still alive. Friends cat, had 7 beans on 3 of their paws and 9 on the other. Ah wells, probably for the best, would have gotten in the way of sitting quietly and cuddling, which is all them and their owner wanted in life.