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Fingerprints

No one in the world has a fingerprint completely identical to yours, past, present or future. This mainly stems from the fact that the formation of fingerprints has too many variables to be accounted for and can never be accurately predicted.



There are some general patterns that have been observed such as the loop, whorl, arch and the double loop whorl.

Early on in foetal development, lumps of stem cell tissue known as volar pads grow beneath the skin of each finger. The formation of volar pads is determined by genetics, which attributes to why some relatives share the same general design to you. Despite so, the uniqueness of each fingerprint does not stem from the DNA in your cells but rather the way your fingerprints grow.

Microscopically, the embryonic skin has 3 main layers; the epidermis, basal layer and the dermis. These layers are growing at different rates and are heavily affected by external variables. There are too many to account for, this makes the formation of fingerprints extremely chaotic and uncontrolled at the microscopic level. Such examples are fluid pressure changes in the womb, orientation of the foetus relative to the direction of gravity and the entropy of growing capillaries within the skin. With these variables in mind the probability of discovering 2 identical fingerprints are 1 in 64 trillion.

 

 

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/traits/fingerprints/#:~:text=A%20person's%20fingerprints%20are%20based,the%20soles%20of%20the%20feet.&text=The%20basic%20size%2C%20shape%2C%20and,be%20influenced%20by%20genetic%20factors.

https://www.healthline.com/health/do-identical-twins-have-the-same-fingerprints#chances

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCRy8voU5dE

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