Do twins have the matching finger prints?

Have you ever wondered why government authorities and other institutes use fingerprints as user authentication source and why not some other factor? Well, the only reason that lies behind this is the uniqueness of fingerprints as no two people can ever have the same prints throughout the world. But if twins are identical and share the same set of DNA, then do they also have different prints?

So, the answer to this question is yes, instead of sharing many identical physical characteristics the twins also have different sets of fingerprints the same way we all do have. The similarities they have like hair color, skin tone, allergy to something, etc. are because of the same DNA. To get a better understanding of this, watch our YouTube video “Do Twins Fingerprint Match?

Why Fingerprints of Twins Don’t Match?

Well, the reason for this variation is that DNA is not the only factor that influences your prints. And there are many other factors too that affect the fingerprint formation. The prints are developed on your hands inside your mother’s womb itself. This process happens between 12 to 18 weeks of pregnancy. Little difference in the environment of the mother’s womb leads to the variation in the prints of twins. 

Effect of Womb’s Environment on Fingerprints Variations:

Along with the genes, there are various other factors that lead to the difference in the fingerprints of people. The factors that affect the environment of the womb and lead to differences in the prints are as follows:

• Level of nutrition in the womb,
• The length of the umbilical cord,
• The accessibility to blood,
• The blood pressure of the mother,
• Position of the fetus inside the womb,
• Bone growth,
• Growth of fingers.
• Contact with Amniotic Sac in the womb.

A combination of all the factors mentioned above changes the prints of every human entirely.

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Effects of Genes on Fingerprint Variations:

Even the identical twins also have differences in the prints and this is because of the genetic mutations they undergo. The genetic factors that affect variation in prints are as follows:

• Impact of Bone Morphogenetic protein (BMP) on the growth of finger ridges,
• Impact of Wingless related integration sites (WNT) on the ridges,

Actually, BMP slows down the growth of the ridges while WNT promotes its growth, this friction between the forces leads to the creation of unique ridges in the fingers that can be seen as strips on the tips and are called whorls. Thus, in this manner, the unique gene combinations in every human body lead to differences in fingerprints. And hence, no twins can have matching or identical impressions.