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Document Type

Article

Abstract

Dermatoglyphic affinities of the Lithuanians were studied with reference to samples of 83 men and 102 women of Lithuanian origin obtained in the U.K. and comparative data for samples from northern, central and eastern parts of Europe, including several from the East Baltic region. Lithuanians have low digital arch frequencies and high mean total ridge count (TRC). Females of the present study had a slightly higher frequency of whorls than males, which could be accounted for by a relatively large number of bicentric patterns on the thumbs. The males had lower whorl frequencies than expected from their mean TRC. Frequencies of palmar patterns and means of three quantitative characters (a-b ridge count, atd angle and main-line index) followed well documented trends of sexual dimorphism and bimanual variation. Dermatoglyphic affinities were assessed univariately by comparisons of mean TRC and by multivariate analysis, using the E2 distance of Edwards (1971). Distances were ordinated by principle co-ordinates analysis and the eigenvectors for population samples (males only) were derived separately for digital and palmar characters. In TRC there are marked sex differences in the interrelationships between populations. In the multivariate analyses considerable within-population variation is shown by the East Baltic samples. Digital dermatoglyphic interrelationships differ in several respects from the palmar. The former conform well to the pattern of linguistic affinities between populations and suggest genetic relationships. The latter seem to be more strongly influenced by factors associated with geographical position.

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