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Asked by to Alan, Deepak, Francesca, Lilly, Nick on 18 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
Question: why is it not possible to have identical fingerprints?
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Francesca Day answered on 18 Mar 2014:
It’s not impossible – it’s just very, very unlikely! The pattern on your finger is determined by your genes, and each person has different genes (apart from identical twins). Identical twins do have almost identical finger prints!
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Alan Fitzsimmons answered on 18 Mar 2014:
The loops and whirls in your fingerprints are genetic like Francesca says. If you look even more closely with a large magnifying glass or microscope, the bumps and wiggles in individual lines and ridges are all different as well. This is just random, like no two leaves on a plant are exactly the same. So it’s genetics and natural randomness that makes all fingerprints different.
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Lilian Hunt answered on 19 Mar 2014:
The main pattern of your fingerprints is determined by your genes, so that’s why identical twins have very similar fingerprints. However we haven;t come across any two people with completely identical fingerprints because the final minute details in the ridges and valleys are actually determined by what we encounter while we are in the womb before birth. Stresses we might encounter, where exactly in the womb we lie and even the length of our umbilical cord can affect these extra details! As everyone has different genetics (except identical twins!) and different experiences before birth, it seems everyone has unique fingerprints! 🙂
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Nick Wright answered on 21 Mar 2014:
Its not impossible, but it is very very unlikely because fingerprints are so complex and they’re also random so every person has a different random set of fingerprints which makes it unlikely that they’ll have finger prints the same as anyone else.
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