Digital dermatoglyphics in Italians.

Finger prints of 420 male and female subjects from Bologna (Italy) were analyzed. Sexual dimorphism and bilateral asymmetry were observed in the group. Differences in the frequency distribution of fingertip patterns in Italy with regards to the regional average were examined and biological distances were computed by Distance Coefficients, R and X* . An increase in the frequency of whorls from north to south Italy and an increase in biological distance with increasing geographical distance were found. The study of dermatoglyphics is well suited for the determination of genetic characteristics of human population. This is demonstrated, for instance, by studies on monoand di-zygotic twins. By simply taking into consideration combinations of fingertip and palmar traits, it has been shown that the probability of error in determining zygosity is only slightly higher (13%) than the residual probability of erroneously classifying twins whose zygosity was determined through the ABO, Rh, and MN systems (Parisi et al. 1976). We have studied the digital dermatoglyphics of the Bolognese population to further contribute to work depicting its human biology (see Benassi Graffi et al. 1980; Facchini et al. 1973, 1974-1976, 1977, 1980; Gruppioni et al. 1977-1979; Martuzzi Veronesi et al. 1969, 1974-1976, 1980; for additional studies on anthropometric and blood group characters of the Bolognese). The analysis first compared Bolognese pattern configurations to other samples of the Italian population, and then determined the biological distance among the various population groups. We have limited ourselves to the study of fingertip dermatoglyphics due to the relative abundance of comparative data. institute of Anthropology, University of Bologna, Italy. institute of Histology and Embryology, University of Bologna, Italy. 3Department of Foods and Nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois. Human Biology, May 1982, Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 373-386. ® Wayne State University Press, 1982 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.144 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 05:39:38 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 374 Emanuela Gualdi-Russo, Maria Zannotti and Serena Cenni Fig. 1. Regional subdivisions of Italy. Dermatoglyphic data were available for (1) Piedmont, (2) Venetia-Julia, (3) Emilia, (4) Tuscany, (5) Latium, (6) Campania, (7) Apulia, (8) Sardinia. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.144 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 05:39:38 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Digital Dermatoglyphics in Italians 375 The following variables were studied: digital patterns (simple and tented arches; ulnar and radial loops; unicentric and dicentric whorls); Furuhata's, Dankmeijers and Pattern Intensity Indices, and Finger Ridge Counts. With the exception of the indices, these traits were examined separately in both sexes and also separately on both hands and on the different fingers. Statistical significance of the differences between sexes in the Bolognese sample was calculated for qualitative traits by the chi-square test and by the t-test for quantitative variables. Available data in the literature were then used to compare to each other the frequency of fingerprint pattern types of our group with those of other regional samples. In some instances data of the same region were lumped together in the comparative analysis. This was the case for Campania, Latium and Sardinia, where we computed a weighted regional average of available data with the exception of Latium data (Frosinone and Rome), that were widely discordant with each other. We decided to ignore the Frosinone data because of its low reliability. Moreover the reported anomalous results in terms of relative frequency of finger-tip patterns were in contrast with the results of another study based on a research on the ABO, Rh, MN systems (Alciati, 1963). Alciatťs conclusions led us to reject the hypothesis that the Frosinone sample may have a different genetic background than the populations of south-central Italy. Comparative data were available for only eight regions, out of the 20 which form Italy; namely for (1) Piedmont, (2) Venetia-Julia, (3) Emilia (present study), (4) Tuscany, (5) Latium, (6) Campania, (7) Apulia and (8) Sardinia (Fig. 1). Two distance coefficients were calculated by using phenotypic frequencies of traits expressed as percentages. These coefficients were Spuhler's R and Sanghvťs X2 for both sexes combined, and Sanghvťs coefficient for both sexes separately, according to the formulae (ConstandseWestermann, 1972a and 1972b):