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I have different fingerprint types

  • 11-10-2013 1:48pm
    #1
    Digy123
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 846 ✭✭✭


    Hey guys,in school today we started studying crime scene science. We all look our fingerprints and tried to match them to a type of finger print classification (arch,loop ect) everyone else had the same pattern on each finger but I noticed i had several different types (Arch,Whorl and loops) I asked the teacher about this and he seemed confused and he said he had never heard of it. Does anyone know anything about this? I thought it was cool so I wanted to look into it :)


Comments

  • #2
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 92,364 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Koala's fingerprints have been confused for human ones so yah for convergent evolution.

    AFAIK fingerprints are useful for collecting seafood and other wet things.


  • #3
    sudzs
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,733 ✭✭✭sudzs


    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    Koala's fingerprints have been confused for human ones so yah for convergent evolution.

    AFAIK fingerprints are useful for collecting seafood and other wet things.

    And even better after a long soak in the bath! Apparently our fingertips go wrinkly in wet conditions for that very reason, to make it easier to handle wet slippery objects.


  • #4
    SOL
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,155 ✭✭✭SOL


    It is perfectly normal to have different types of fingerprints... it would be really surprising if you had all arches.

    They occur roughly in the following ratio:
    65% loops
    30% whorl
    5% arch

    Fingerprints used to be classified on a system where you would score them for how many whorls and arches people had to allow for faster sorting (pre computer) but all loop was by far the biggest category.

    Also interestingly is that the ridges have nothing to do with grip even though it's a popular myth. They are infact used to increase the sense of touch - they occur on all friction skin and are caused by dermal papillae underneath the outer layer of skin.


    The reason your hands go wrinkly when wet is for grip. This, rather than your skin getting soggy is in fact a response controlled by the nervous system. A sign of nerve damage or CNS disease can be (but not always) that your fingers always look like they have been in water...


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