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.