A Comparative Study of Plantar and Digital Dermatoglyphic Features of Kenyan and Tanzanian Subjects

The present report deals with plantar and digital dermatoglyphics of indigenous Kenyan and Tanzanian subjects, aged 12–25 years selected from the cosmopolitan cities of Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, giving a good mix of social backgrounds, that allowed for the inclusion of quantitative plantar variables. The results showed that plantar whorls were found only in zones III and I in Tanzanian women as against zones I to V in all other subjects. The percentage frequencies of the plantar ridge patterns, however, varied within and between the two groups. The most predominant digital ridge pattern found in all subjects was arches, which were absent in the first digit in Tanzanian women. Loops had the highest frequency in the first digit in all subjects. They were absent, however, on the fifth digit in Tanzanian women and on the left fifth digit in Kenyan women. Whorls were restricted to the first digit in Kenyan women but absent in Tanzanian women and this was characteristic of women in both groups. However, whorls were only found on the right side of Tanzanian men. Similarly, whorls were absent on the fourth and fifth digits in Tanzanian subjects. The pattern intensity (PII) and Dankmeijer’s (DI) indices were higher in women than men, but the PII for Tanzanians was higher than for Kenyans. These digital dermatoglyphic features can therefore differentiate the two population groups. The normal plantar and digital dermatoglyphic features of subjects of from both countries are compared for the first time in East Africans, and they indicate affinities and anthropological relationship between them. Dermatoglyphically, the East Africans sampled were closer to Malawians and Zimbabweans of Southern African than Nigerians of West Africa.