CLPEX Chat Board

This is in response to a post a while ago about cuspal patterns that are very rare...in fact, most examiners probably haven't even seen any in their career. Charles Parker posted a picture of one and ever since then, it sparked my interest. Well, I just booked a kid tonight for DUI and his left thumb (#6 finger) was quite unusual. I will try and post a picture and see if anyone can guess what caused this unusual pattern.

How close to a nail-to-nail roll is it? Is a delta visible on the actual finger, and if so, how close to the nail is it?
Regards, RLT

The placement of the delta during the critical stage of ridge formation is caused by volar pad symmetry - my guess is that the pad was somehow forced or located more to the side than normal on that finger. This could have been a result of abnormal stress on that finger or abnormal growth of the digit.

Josher 89, it is close to being a cuspal so close that my interpretation of the pattern would be a tented arch with a reference to a 5 count loop. I cannot really see if the core is spoiled or not. The core looks broken so that is why I would give it a tented arch first.

But pattern interepretation and Henry is dead (or almost). Now patterns are determined according to automated systems and those only consist of arches loops and swirls (yes I said it--might as well as get in the habit of being imprecise---can't tell when a reporter will want to talk to me).

You got me started, and like all latent examiners (well, many of us older ones, that is) I cannot keep quiet when it comes to pattern interpretation. Charles, I tend to agree with you on it being a loop first as there is a recurving ridge, and referenced to a tented arch.

You will notice the ridge flow in the lower right of it and see that there is a tri-radius nearby. I have seen a cuspal pattern, besides the one that I used for one of my fingerprint people, at the FBI while searching the ten-t's in Unit One. The felon in question had more than one and he had a record. Pattern interpretation and Henry should not be dead. To fully explain to a jury about a comparison on a latent fingerprint, it is easier to tell them about a pattern than trying to explain about AFIS terminology.

In fact, in an older (last couple of years or so) Journal, there was a picture of a loop entering from the top left, recurving on the bottom, with two deltas; accidental whorl, and this department happens to have one. I just need to search again to find it.

Once more, my personal opinion, we should not forget our basics. Without them, we cannot properly do our job, and, it could happen in court that a defense attorney gets ahold of an old training manual from the feds and starts to ask questions from it while you're on the stand. There is nothing in the law that would forbid him to embarass you by using it. All of our ten-print people can do this, and as long as I teach the course, it will be taught to them.

In case y'all are wondering, yes, I believe that a marriage of the old with the new will benefit us all. If I can keep all of this from leaking from my "old dinosaur" ears, you young whipper-snappers should be able to do the same.

I love it...drumming up discussion about a crazy weird pattern. I will wait one more night to post what happened to this individual as this may give the lucky ones with weekends off (and who don't check this board every day!) a chance to pipe in. You will be amazed, you will be awed, you will be, well, interested, at least.

Until tomorrow...

I guess, because I have a friend who had the procedure, that my first thought was that he lost his thumb through trauma and had it replaced by a finger being surgically relocated. I don't have specifics of how a thumb replacement finger (or a big toe, which is also commonly used) is installed, so I wondered if there was something in how it is done to maintain proper opposition that could set it askew. There are also some procedures in which a skin flap is extended to repair a finger injury in which substantial tissue is lost. I kind of suspect that one. Could this piece of skin have started life on his palm?

I have one where they took skin from the palm and transplanted to the thumb and it does not look like this one.

I tend to believe it is natural the way it is and Kasey explanation is currently the one I would go with until such time as someone presents a better one.

Kasey is correct!!! The individual was born with a second thumb on his left hand (I have no idea if it was a fully developed digit) that was surgically removed after birth. My guess is that because of this second thumb, the volar pad was abnormally skewed to the outside of his primary thumb. It could be, though, that the addition of the second thumb (depending on if it was completely separate or still partially attached laterally) would show the remainder of the pattern. I would have loved to see this fully developed now to see if all three ridge skin systems were equally effected by this abnormal growth. We'll never know, though. He did call it his 'retarded' finger. By the way, the delta-like formation was basically all that was visible; there was a scar that started just after the inked image stopped.

I have just found out where the name "Cuspal" came from.

If you are going to Louisville, KY for the IAI Conference and can tell me where the name came from I will give to you a "Gold Presidential Dollar".


So in case any of you are planning to break this old man and pass the answer around----this offer is good only for the first 10 people that can correctly tell me where the name "Cuspal" came from for the unsual fingerprint pattern that bears its name.

And if you think Dr. Harold Cummins was the first to use it----Ding Dong, you owe me a dollar.

After the conference I will post the answer here.

Alas, we lost a good man and I realized it again when I read this post. Did anyone speak to Charles at the conference and get the correct answer...where did the term 'cuspal' come from?