14 DAY TRIAL // In a recent study in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, researchers with the North Carolina State University argue that it is possible to tell whether a person is black or white simply by looking at their fingerprints.
Thus, the scientists say evidence indicates that certain fingerprint characteristics are common among all individuals who share an ancestral background and so can help tell them apart from other people.
As part of their investigation, the scientists studied the fingerprints of 61 African American women, 61 African American men, 61 European American women and 60 European American men.
They looked not just at Level 1 details such as pattern types and ridge counts, but also at Level 2 details like ridge bifurcations. Such details are more specific than Level 1 ones, the specialists explain in a report detailing their work.
The researchers found that, while it was impossible to tell women and men apart judging only by their fingerprints, they could nonetheless distinguish between the African American and the European American study participants.
The particularities than made it possible for the North Carolina State University scientists to tell the African American and the European American volunteers apart were all Level 2 ones.
The researchers are the first to admit that further investigations are needed to confirm that a person's fingerprints can in fact reveal their ancestry. All the same, they are quite excited about their findings.
“More work need to be done. We need to look at a much larger sample size and evaluate individuals from more diverse ancestral backgrounds,” said researcher Ann Ross. “This holds promise for helping law enforcement,” the specialist added.