Digital Dermatoglyphics Patterns of the Kanuri Ethnic Group of North Eastern Nigeria

Lack of adequate anthropological data on indigenous Nigerians as compared to Caucasian and mongoloids has opened the need to obtain such data for a section of the Nigerian population. Dermatoglyphic study of whorls, loops and arches were made on three hundred (300) subjects, consisting of 150 males and 150 females that were randomly selected from the kanuri ethnic group in the North-eastern region of Nigeria. The result obtained showed that Arch frequency was 7.07%, Whorls was 33.80% and Loops was 59.10%. The Pattern Intensity Index showed a slightly higher value in males (12.85) than in females (12.49). Ridge counting was also done for each finger, males showed higher ridge count (122.64) than females (115.45) and the right digit was found to have a higher ridge count than the left digits except for digits II,III and V in males. Dankmeijer's indices for Kanuris were lower in males (19.99) than in females (21.92), while the Furuhata'sindices were higher in males (62.44) than in females (52.28). The results showed a similar pattern with other results obtained in the South-west and Eastern part of Nigeria.