# Fingerprints **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [May 10, 2001, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingerprints/64958 "2001-05-10T03:40:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DeepDarkSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c77e96/32.png) [@DeepDarkSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepDarkSky)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2001, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingerprints/64958/1 "2001-05-10T03:40:51Z")
As much as fingerprints may be unique, the way to determine if two fingerprints match is a whole different story. This linke provides some of the information that I think may be more helpful. [http://www.linguafranca.com/print/0011/feature\_fingerprints.html](http://www.linguafranca.com/print/0011/feature_fingerprints.html) ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2001, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingerprints/64958/2 "2001-05-10T13:30:59Z")
And the column being discussed is [Do identical twins have different fingerprints?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a980821.html) ---
**Author:** ![DeepDarkSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c77e96/32.png) [@DeepDarkSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepDarkSky)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2001, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingerprints/64958/3 "2001-05-10T15:39:37Z")
I was commenting on Cecil’s comments about the use of fingerprints for law enforcement purposes, specifically the “the chances of duplicating even a portion of a fingerprint are 1 in 100 quintillion”. No, the link doesn’t pertain to the question that Cecil was answering. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2001, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingerprints/64958/4 "2001-05-11T19:18:08Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, DeepDarkSky, and thank you for posting your comment. Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site. To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in your post (make sure there is a space **before** and **after** the text of the URL). Cecil’s column can be found on-line at the link provided by **Duck Duck Goose**. Even if your link doesn’t directly pertain to the subject of the Straight Dope column, we still like users to add a link to the article that prompted the post in this forum. * * * moderator, «[**Comments on Cecil’s Columns**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=1)» [Edited by Arnold Winkelried on 05-11-2001 at 02:20 PM] ---
**Author:** ![nelamm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/aeb1de/32.png) [@nelamm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelamm)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2001, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingerprints/64958/5 "2001-05-11T21:29:27Z")
Has anyone ever heard of identical twins having mirror-image fingerprints? It’s what I always thought until The Straight Dope, God bless it, enlightened me, but I just wanted to know if anyone else heard this. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2001, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingerprints/64958/6 "2001-05-12T01:56:58Z")
Why would that be nelamm? One might just as well expect having one twin be right-handed and the other left-handed, or one of the twins having organs reversed (i.e. heart on the right-hand side), which was one of the physical characteristics of James Bond’s nemesis Dr. No, if memory serves. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2001, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingerprints/64958/7 "2001-05-12T12:32:16Z")
Some (not all) identical twins are mirror image, with one’s organs the wrong way around and everything. Since there _is_ a resemblance between the fingerprints of twins, I dare say they’d also be mirrored, though still not identical when reversed. There is also at least one condition unrelated to twinning that produces reversed organs (Kartaganer’s syndrome). ---
**Author:** ![DeepDarkSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c77e96/32.png) [@DeepDarkSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepDarkSky)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2001, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingerprints/64958/8 "2001-05-12T16:03:47Z")
ah, sorry for not having linked to the original article. I hadn’t realize that the message boards will have threads that may not correspond to the current article, especially after enough time has passed. I had read a while back (I don’t remember where, unfortunately) that the condition where people’s internal organs are flipped from “normal” people is caused by genetic mutation or something else having to do with genes, rather than because they were born as part of identical twins. I don’t think there’s any reason why being part of identical twins would cause things to be mirror-imaged (it’s more a fallacy of our own visualization, that if you put twins side-by-side, you feel like there should be a virtual mirror between them, and consequently, they should have mirror-imaged features). Besides, what happens if you have identical triplets? Which brings up a question, are there any statistics about identical multi-births \> 2? I’d think that it’s very rare, much more different from your usual multi-births, I’d think. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingerprints/64958/9 "2001-05-13T14:14:09Z")
As I said, _some_ identical twins are mirrors. It depends on when and how the original embryo divides. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fingerprints/64958/10 "2001-05-14T06:33:43Z")
Dorothy L. Sayers wrote a Lord Peter Wimsey short story about a reversed twin - can’t remember the name of it just now, but it was a fun read.