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  • What are Friction Ridges and how are they formed?

  • Are they a Genetic Trait?

  • Can DNA tell us what your fingerprint looks like?

  • Why are fingerprints permanent parts of us?

Friction ridges form in the uterus by the fourth month of fetal development and remain unchanged and absolute for a person's lifetime, only decomposing after death. These unique factors make friction ridge skin ideal for use in personal identification. Once friction ridge skin was recognized as valuable and reliable for personal identification, different people began to work on systems for taking these prints and then organizing them.

There is an inheritable quality to fingerprints. Pattern types are often genetically inherited, but the individual details that make a fingerprint unique are not. Humans, as well as apes and monkeys, have so-called friction ridge skin (FRS) covering the surfaces of their hands and feet

A "DNA fingerprint" is kind of like a regular fingerprint. You are born with it, it is unique to you (unless you have an identical twin!), and you can leave it behind wherever you go.

 

 

But unlike a fingerprint from your hand, your DNA fingerprint can't be found by just "dusting for prints" like they do on detective shows. To find a DNA fingerprint, a scientist has to first take the DNA out of the nucleus of a cell.

 

 

Fingerprints are formed before birth, and while they grow larger throughout a person’s life, their basic structure remains constant.  They can be temporarily obscured when the skin is damaged; but once healed, the ridges grow back in the exact same pattern.  Even when a fingerprint is permanently scarred, there is almost always sufficient detail around the scar to allow for a positive identification 

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