ASIDE from being insanely cute and surprisingly ill-tempered, Australia's koalas are one of the few animals that possess fingerprints almost indistinguishable from a human's.
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Verdict:
TRUE
Joining the ranks of primates like the chimpanzee and orangutan, koalas have fingerprints so human-like that Australian researchers have warned the police that their prints could taint crime scenes.
Speaking to UK daily The Independent in 1996, Maciej Henneberg, a biological anthropologist and forensic scientist at the University of Adelaide, said that the marsupials had fingerprints which were so close to those of people that they could easily be mistaken by police.
Henneberg worked with a few of the marsupials at the Urimbara Wildlife Park, and noticed that their prints featured the same loops, whorls and arches like those on a human hand.
"Although it is extremely unlikely that koala prints would be found at the scene of a crime, police should at least be aware of the possibility," he said.
Koalas are arboreal animals, meaning they spend a majority of their time up in the trees.
Like humans and primates, the fine ridges and grooves of their fingerprints are packed full of sensitive nerve endings that give their fingers a sense of touch similar to our own.
They use their refined sense of touch to feel if the leaves they eat (only eucalyptus) are ripe enough for them to eat as well as to help them "feel" their way through the trees.
Just like humans, koalas have opposable thumbs (they actually have six) and can manipulate things with their hands.
Also, the ridges and patterns on their fingers make it easier for them to grip things and control objects with their hands as it increases the surface area of the skin in contact with whatever they are trying to hold on to.
References:
1. https://www.independent.co.
2. https://www.mentalfloss.
3. https://www.
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