12 Fingers and 14 toes: but not a Guinness World Record!

12 Fingers & 14 toes: a new Guinness World Record?Last year various sources around the world reported that Heramb Ashok Kumthekar, a 22 year old marketing student from Pune was born with 12 fingers and 14 toes. The current Guinness World Record holder for having the most fingers and toes in the world is an Indian young boy named Devendra Harne: he has only 12 fingers and 13 toes. However, the student from Pune is not able to claim a new record. Heramb’s extra digits are caused by the medical condition called ‘polydactly‘, which translates from the Greek for “many fingers”. However, even though his hands have separate bones, technically some of his fingers are attached – this condition is called ‘syndactyly‘.Heramb Ashok Kumthekar says: “I am happy about it because I have something that others don’t have. I never had a problem with it and after I get publicity I will be famous because of it.” The congenital condition of having extra fingers occurs in one in every 500 births. Famous holders of extra digits include the beheaded ex-wife of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn (who was rumoured to have an extra finger on her left hand), the Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan (one of Indian cinema’s rising stars has one extra digit on each hand), and recently the new James Bond Girl Gemma Arterton admitted that she was born with 6 fingers on each hand (an extra pinky finger).