> How many toes does a cat have on each of its back paws?And the answer: four. Photo credit: Sue McDonald/ Shutterstock.The average house cat has five toes oneach of its front paws, but only four toes on each of its back paws. The innertoes on the front paws are used for grasping objects, and aren't needed on theback paws.Despite their cuteness, cats have a number of unique anatomical features thatset them apart from other animals. For one, a cat's face has a number of prettyneat evolutionary adaptations. Their noses act as a sort of fingerprint – itsrigid pattern is unique to each individual cat. Around it, their whiskers act asa sensitive radar system, identifying and analyzing everything the cat touches.Below, their sandpaper tongue-barbs snag flakes of loose fur, skin, dirt orfleas. And (gross but fascinating), cats swallow all this debris, which isusually dissolved by stomach acid.A cat's hearing is also impressively superior to many animals. Cats can hear inthe upper ranges of sound, from 45 to 60,000 Hertz (humans hear 20 to 20,000).Their ears ran rotate up to 180 degrees, and can hear a can of tuna crackingopen from miles away. Thanks to the feline inner ear’s vestibular system, a cat’s body senses whetherit is upside down and how far from the ground he or she is. This factcontributes to the persisting myth that cats always land on their feet; however,a cat's reflex to right itself is a very real quality of their flexible backboneand lack of collarbone. If all that wasn't enough, a cuddly cat will purr with happiness andcontentment. Scientists who study purring describe it as the result ofintermittent signaling by the diaphragmatic (diaphragm) and laryngeal (larynx orvoice box) muscles, at a frequency of 25 to 150 Hertz (a Hertz is one cycle persecond). Interestingly, sometimes cats will purr when stressed or sad as well. With all this new cat knowledge, we hope you pet a fluffy friend today. Learnmore interesting facts about cats below.