Yes. Koalas have fingerprints with whorls, loops, and fine ridge detail remarkably similar to human fingerprints โ similar enough that researchers say the two can be difficult to distinguish even under a microscope โ even though koalas are marsupials whose lineage separated from ours more than 70 million years ago.
This is convergent evolution โ the same solution appearing twice, independently, because it solves the same problem. Primates and koalas did not inherit fingerprints from a recent shared ancestor. Instead, each lineage developed ridged fingertips on its own. When scientists documented the koala's prints in the 1990s, the surprise was how far the resemblance goes: not just ridges in general, but the same families of patterns people have, with comparable fine detail when magnified.
That detail is also why the comparison stops at "similar," not "identical." Every individual print โ human or koala โ is still unique, formed by a mix of genetics and conditions during development. A koala print resembles the human style of print; it is not a copy of any person's fingerprint.
The leading explanation is grip and touch. A koala spends its life climbing smooth-barked eucalyptus trees and handling leaves, choosing which ones to eat largely by feel. Fine ridges increase friction on smooth surfaces and make fingertips more sensitive, the same practical advantages prints offer primates. In other words, a heavy animal that lives in trees and eats by touch benefits from fingertips built like gripping, sensing pads โ and evolution found that design twice.
See the short version: "Koalas Have Fingerprints Like Yours โ Things You Didn't Know" on LOE PRESSURE (Science #34).
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Sources: Live Science reporting on koala fingerprints; University of Adelaide research associated with Maciej Henneberg, who documented koala fingerprints in 1996.