Myth of Fingerprints

[Misty_Morning]

So I was reading about how scientists have reconstructed Da Vinci's fingerprints from manuscripts and artworks. Some scientists are trying to link his fingerprints to his ethnic origins, or more so to his mothers.

It got me to wondering about fingerprints.

What do you know about them?

I spent most of the afternoon reading up about them.


What do you know about them? What patterns do you have?



Yeah....I'm a nerd.

 

[rgraham666]

My fingerprints are currently flaking off. Skin of my fingers does this every year when winter starts.

 

[Guest]

I remember studying fingerprints in a very cool science class in high school.

My prints are boring, as I recall. I only have one of those "whorl" types, which seemed to be the most interesting.

How do fingerprints relate to ethnic origins?

 

[buxxxom]

I only have a set of 9 prints. I sliced the fingerpad off one finger using a mandoline. Cucumbers go through quickly, did you know that? Anyway, the healed part didn't grow a print back, just scar-like tissue. Weird.

 

[deathlynx]

All I know about them is that the fingerprint detector was remarkably easy for the Mythbusters people to fool...lol

 

[cantdog]

Ah the good old days. You can't write a detective novel with fingerprints any more. There's DNA now-- tosses a big advantage to the cops, provided they want to pay the money to a lab. They still do take latents, and the tech is easier than ever with computer matching.

 

[slyc_willie]

Ah the good old days. You can't write a detective novel with fingerprints any more. There's DNA now-- tosses a big advantage to the cops, provided they want to pay the money to a lab. They still do take latents, and the tech is easier than ever with computer matching.

I seem to remember reading once that the FBI used to take skull measurements of convicted felons as part of a system of cataloguing them, as well as trying to find ways to predict who might be a future criminal. Apparently, those with certain skull measurements (can't remember what the criteria was) were more likely to be criminal.

As for fingerprints, like Cant said, DNA has more or less trumped the use of fingerprints, although they are still taken and are used mainly as a secondary means of proof that a certain person was at a certain place.

***

What I've always wondered is, why, exactly, fingerprints are specific to each individual human being. I mean, what purpose would that serve in nature?

 

[glynndah]

I seem to remember reading once that the FBI used to take skull measurements of convicted felons as part of a system of cataloguing them, as well as trying to find ways to predict who might be a future criminal. Apparently, those with certain skull measurements (can't remember what the criteria was) were more likely to be criminal.

As for fingerprints, like Cant said, DNA has more or less trumped the use of fingerprints, although they are still taken and are used mainly as a secondary means of proof that a certain person was at a certain place.

***

What I've always wondered is, why, exactly, fingerprints are specific to each individual human being. I mean, what purpose would that serve in nature?

In larger jurisdictions, yes, but out here in the boonies, fingerprints are still the gold standard.

 

[slyc_willie]

In larger jurisdictions, yes, but out here in the boonies, fingerprints are still the gold standard.

Good point. Guess I'm too much of a city slicker,

 

[cantdog]

In larger jurisdictions, yes, but out here in the boonies, fingerprints are still the gold standard.

They don't even bring out the cop equipment for fingerprints for most cases. It costs money, and they don't have to. They can testify, lie if needed, and establish the res without forensic proof of anything, most of the time. Only in high-profile cases, capital cases, and cases involving rich or influential people, do they even bother to do any crime scene work.

That said, I had never heard that fingerprints carried any inference about heritage.

 

[Weird Harold]

That said, I had never heard that fingerprints carried any inference about heritage.

I haven't seen anything specific about fingerprints being used to identify heritage, but I can see where it might be possible.

I know that all of my brothers' fingerprints and my fingerprints are all very similar and fall into the same broad grouping used to categorize/file fingerprints. I suspect that that's true of most families and the concept can be applied to extended families and family trees -- not as a positive identifier of individuals but as a characteristic of a genetic line.

 

[Misty_Morning]

I had run across several old articles about anthropologists reconstructing Da Vinci's pingerprint from his left index finger.

They have alot of partial prints.

What I thought was cool is that they may be also have traces of his saliva, blood or food on them.

Then they went onto to say that some of his fingerprints had traits that were distictive to certain ethic groups, most notably arabic. I really never thought prints could show stuff like that.


it's not definitive....just speculation.


Still cool though.

 

[Just-Legal]

All I know about them is that the fingerprint detector was remarkably easy for the Mythbusters people to fool...lol

I love, love, LOVE that show. And yes it was

 

[Stella_Omega]

...
What I've always wondered is, why, exactly, fingerprints are specific to each individual human being. I mean, what purpose would that serve in nature?

No purpose, it's just a side effect kind of thing, I would bet. Not every trait needs a purpose to survive; it merely has to be not lethal.

 

[slyc_willie]

No purpose, it's just a side effect kind of thing, I would bet. Not every trait needs a purpose to survive; it merely has to be not lethal.

Well, the function of those lines on our fingers that make up fingerprints is to help us grip things, of course. But the mere fact that every fingerprint is unique is interesting. To me, it implies a purpose.

 

[deathlynx]

I love, love, LOVE that show. And yes it was

The funny thing was, the high end detector they got was harder to fool than the standardized security one they were challenging...

 

[only_more_so]

Well, the function of those lines on our fingers that make up fingerprints is to help us grip things, of course. But the mere fact that every fingerprint is unique is interesting. To me, it implies a purpose.

How about the lines on your palm? I took this class on palmistry once and she said some interesting things. Apparently the lines on your palm develop in utero and are not usage creases (they also don't fade from people in comas).

Apparently with the advent of palm scanners they are even correlating traits to line patterns.

 

[SlickTony]

I only have a set of 9 prints. I sliced the fingerpad off one finger using a mandoline. Cucumbers go through quickly, did you know that? Anyway, the healed part didn't grow a print back, just scar-like tissue. Weird.

I know a guy who did the same thing, and the doctor grafted skin from another part of his hand onto the where his fingertip had been. So now he actually has a fingertip that hair grows on.

 

[Weird Harold]

How about the lines on your palm? I took this class on palmistry once and she said some interesting things. Apparently the lines on your palm develop and are not usage creases (they also don't fade from people in comas).

The footprints taken from newborns aethe same principle -- the finger and tow prints are fully formed in utero but newborn finngers and toes are to small to get useable prints from. I've often tought about taking a footprint and comparing it to my newborn prints to see if the line really do stay the same throughout your life.

 

[only_more_so]

The footprints taken from newborns aethe same principle -- the finger and tow prints are fully formed in utero but newborn finngers and toes are to small to get useable prints from. I've often tought about taking a footprint and comparing it to my newborn prints to see if the line really do stay the same throughout your life.

The finger prints might stay the same, put the lines on the palm actually change. I have seen it in my own hand.

 

[Misty_Morning]

The footprints taken from newborns aethe same principle -- the finger and tow prints are fully formed in utero but newborn finngers and toes are to small to get useable prints from. I've often tought about taking a footprint and comparing it to my newborn prints to see if the line really do stay the same throughout your life.

I have my original birth certificate that has my footprints. I didn't think they still did that. Most folks I know didn't have that on their birth certificates a few years after I was born. My son didn't have that either...but then again it may have been due to other reasons. My ex husband didn't have his foot prints on his birth certificate and he was born the same year as me. I wonder if this was just something certain hospitals did at certain times.


On another note....was looking at websites about palm reading.....seems I don't have certain lines that most folks have.

Does that mean that I am not really alive?