Qualitative dermatoglyphic traits as measures of population distance

Abstract

Thirteen Iranian populations of diverse origin have been analyzed for qualitative dermatoglyphic features utilizing bilateral finger and palmar prints of 3,158 individuals. Bimanual differences were significant for some of the features examined, whereas sex differences were frequently nonsignificant. Interpopulational variation displayed significant heterogeneity for all of the features studied. Distance analysis and constructed dendrograms provided separation between populations in agreement with known ethnohistoric records for hypothenar triradii, and for palmar and finger patterns, but not for the terminations of the D-Line.

Sexual Dimorphism in Finger Ridge Breadth Measurements: A Tool for Sex Estimation from Fingerprints

“…Fingerprint analyses have been applied to human identification and population studies for decades; yet, to date, no study has been able to provide a reliable method to predict an individual's sex based on fingerprint measurements . This study examines metric sex variation in finger ridge breadth to evaluate whether an isolated print can be accurately classified as male or female.…”