# Another Clone Question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-clone-question/5005>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 30, 1999, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-clone-question/5005 "1999-11-30T09:14:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-clone-question/5005/1 "1999-11-30T09:14:00Z")

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I was reminded of this question tonight. Would human clones have identical fingerprints?

I’ve asked people (biologists) who ought to know, and they said yes. However, I’ve always figured that, identical twins do not have identical fingerprints, so why should clones? As was pointed out in another thread, identical twins ought to be even closer in “identity” than clones, because of the similarity in environment (particularly in the womb, where, as far as I know, the fingerprints are defined), but even they don’t have identical fingerprints, do they?

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**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-clone-question/5005/2 "1999-11-30T12:01:00Z")

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Fingerprints of identical twins aren’t identical. However, genetics _does_ play a part in the general formation of them. So they are similar, just not identical.

IIRC, even without a match, the authorities can hazard a guess as to the race of a person by their fingerprints because of genetic tendancies.