A multivariate approach to fingerprint variation in Papua New Guinea: Perspectives on the evolutionary stability of dermatoglyphic markers

Abstract

In the Markham Valley of Papua New Guinea, multivariate graphical displays of serological, anthropometric, and dermatoglyphic population structures are compared pursuant to the hypothesis that fingerprints have a slower velocity of evolutionary change and, therefore, are preferable biological markers for prehistorical reconstructions. Samples from nine villages, which represent three geographical and linguistic populations, are plotted in two dimensions using appropriate multivariate techniques for maximally portraying between sample variability. Both the serological and morphometric displays are found lacking in close clusters, which demonstrates a lack of congruence with the shared languages and, presumably, the ethnohistorical origins of the three populations. These discrepancies between biology and prehistory appear to reflect recent environmental and stochastic perturbations. On the other hand, fingerprint displays conform closely to language affiliations, relatively undisturbed by environmental variation and genetic drift.The relative congruence between ethnohistorical affiliation and fingerprint diversity is further corroborated by comparing the three measures of population structure with geographical distances, using partial rank correlations. In terms of explained variance, the level of association with fingerprints is more than twice than with anthropometry, and 13 times greater than with serology. Whereas metric and serological data provide distorted portrayals of known biohistorical relationships among the study populations, fingerprint data mirror these relationships. The theoretical foundations and consequences of this observation are discussed with respect to the broader question of polygenic versus monogenic biological markers.In a previous paper on the prehistorical implications of fingerprint data in Papua New Guinea (Froehlich and Giles, 19801, we argued that multivariate population comparisons with fingerprints support hypotheses of migration and gene flow along likely geographical pathways, corroborated by linguistic data and oral traditions. In other words, fingerprints provide a population structure which is compatible with processural models derived from language, geography, and ethnohistorical studies.Previous studies of anthropometric and serological variation have rarely portrayed known or suspected prehistorical relationships in Melanesia, seeming rather to reflect environmental differences or recent microevolutionary events. Thus, there is an implicit conclusion from successful prehistorical reconstructions t h a t fingerprints may be more phylogenetically stable than other biological

The use of quantitative traits in the study of human population structure

“…Dermatoglyphics also have moderate to good correspondence with geography in a number of studies (e.g., Neel et al, 1974;Friedlaender, 1975;White and Parsons, 1975;Rudan, 1977;Froehlich and Giles, 1981). Friedlaender (1975) found lower correlations for dermatoglyphics and geography than for anthropometrics and geography.…”

“…The geometric representation of distance measures (using the above methods and others) has been used in many studies of population structure and quantitative variation (e.g., Rao, 1948 Friedlaender, 1975;Zegura, 1975; Froehlich and Giles, 1981). Such studies have included geographic, linguistic, social, and biological interpretations and comparisons.…”

“…Drift is often seen as having little effect on metric traits, presumably because random fluctuations are apt to cancel one another for a large number of independent loci (Workman and Niswander, 1970;Spielman, 1973a;Rothhammer et al, 1977;Froehlich and Giles, 1981). These statements are supported by Livingstone's (1972) simulation of drift in polygenic traits.…”

Diversity in palmar pattern ridge counts among 12 Iranian populations

“…In more recent interpopulational studies, palmar pattern frequencies either alone or in conjunction with other palmar and/or finger traits have been used (e.g., Chai, 1972;Heet and Keita, 1979;Rothhammer et al, 1979;Jantz and Chopra, 1983;Froehlich and Giles, 1981). However, it may be noted that a number of investigators have shown interethnic differences not only in the frequency occurrences of finger patterns but also in the size of finger patterns as determined by total or absolute finger ridge counts (e.g., Holt, 1968;Jantz, 1977).…”

Finger and palmar dermatoglyphics in Muzeina Bedouin from South Sinai: A quantitative study

“…Several studies had demonstrated that dermatoglyphics are phylogenetically more stable than other biological traits (Rothhammer et al 1977, Froehlich andGiles 1981). The fact that dermatoglyphic traits appear to be evolutionarily conservative renders them more reliable for studies of the historical relationships of population components.…”