title: Palmar dermatoglyphics of the Faroe Islanders.
abstract: The palmar dermatoglyphics of 298 male and 331 female Faroe Islanders were studied by the topological method of Penrose and Loesch. The frequency of individual pattern elements, triradii, main-line index and a-b ridge counts were recorded and compared with similar results for Danes and Cornish obtained from the analysis of unpublished data. The palmar traits of the three populations conform closely to the patterns of sex and bimanual variation reported in previous topological studies of Europeans. The Faroese have some distinctive dermatoglyphic features but the frequencies of their palm patterns are not as divergent from other North-West Europeans as their finger dermatoglyphic characters.
mesh_terms: D003718:Denmark; D003878:Dermatoglyphics; D005260:Female; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male