Toeprints are just as similar and mysterious as fingerprints.
A few years ago a 19-year-old American who was on the lam for almost two years, stealing cars, boats, and aeroplanes across International boundaries, managed to elude the police, till he made one small mistake. He allegedly walked barefoot into a grocery store and left the outlines of his feet on the chalk on the floor. Apparently, his toeprints or footmarks led to his arrest earning him the nickname, the 'barefoot bandit'. Maybe new to you, but that is not the first instance of a toeprint helping in nab a criminal. The first case was in 1952 when a safe-cracker was identified by the footprints he left in flour at a Scottish bakery. And there have been quite a few such famous cases thereafter where criminals have been caught by using toeprints. That brings a question to mind, doesn't it?
Can A Person's Toeprints Be As Unique As One's Fingerprints?
Well, yes. Friction ridges or dermatoglyphics, the naturally occurring ridges on the pads of our fingers also occur on the palm soles, toes and the foot soles. And just like fingerprints, similar prints mentioned on the areas here are unique and relatively permanent.
So much so, that the US courts will accept evidence from all these four body parts. Toeprints were even suggested as biometric data to be included in the now-abandoned UK identity card scheme.
Researchers have moved one step ahead to argue that marks from lips, elbows and ears are no less distinct. Some scientists are even eager to add skin - which is devoid of any incriminating search patterns, to this list as well.
Toeprints Must Form Just Like Fingerprints
It is known that the ridge patterns are formed 5 months before birth. The environmental factors influencing the formation of the ridges are unclear both in case of fingerprints and toeprints, though, it is said to form from the friction of the skin during the fetal stage. Also unclear as to why fiction ridges appear only on the hands and feet. Are they the remnants of nerve formation, folded-over cells in the epidermis, or regions of skin that got pressurised in utero? None is sure.
Why Are Toeprints Not As Common As Fingerprints?
Fingerprints are supposedly more useful to the police. Perhaps all International Police machinery, including FBI, maintains a huge database of fingerprints. Even FBI keeps no records of toe or footmarks. Only when fingerprints fail, toeprints seems to make their mark.
