Fingerprint surface is into ridges and valleys. Ridges are the dark areas in the biometric scan. According to the NIST publication "NIST Special Publication 500-271" defines the minutia as "The point where a friction ridge begins, terminates, or splits into two or more ridges. Minutiae are friction ridge characteristics that are used to individualize a fingerprint image". Minutia, in other words, represents special characteristics which may characterize the ridges from one another
Actually, ridges and valleys are structures on fingerprint and the specific patterns constructed with the help of these structures are called as minutiae that becomes basis for fingerprint matching.