Inheritance of Fingerprints and Palmprints among Three Generations of a Family in Kerala Population

The papillary ridges on the fingertips create patterns that leave fingerprint impressions. Palmprint refers to the study of the inner surface of the human hand has ridge patterns that extend from the wrist to the tips of the fingers. As these prints do not change their shape and is constant forever in an individual, hence they can be used for identification.

The aim of this study is to compare and analyze fingerprint and palmprint characteristics among three generations in a family.

The study was cross-sectional and observational method and involved 25 families comprised of three generations: grandparents, parents (including the mother and the father) and grandchildren. This study took place in the state of Kerala, India from July 2022-2023. The participants age group is between 5 and 70. Fingerprints of the ten fingers and palmprints were taken on plain paper for each individual. Chi-square test was done to test whether there is association between fingerprint and palmprint patterns across the generations.

Primary classification of Henry’s system reveals 56% of patterns are from first to second generation, 39.02% from first to third generation, and 41.46% from second to third generation. Secondary classification shows 52% of patterns are from first to second generation, 39.02% from first to third generation, and 56.09% from second to third generation. It was observed that palmprint patterns have similarities of 84% from the first generation to the second generation, 63.41% from the first generation to the third generation, and 70.73% from the second generation to the third generation.

The present study shows that there is no association between fingerprints and palmprints patterns across three generations.