Sexual dimorphism in Muzeina Bedouins from South Sinai: Multivariate analysis on dermatoglyphic traits with asymmetry and diversity

Authors

  • Bibha Karmakar Biological Anthropology Unit, Indian Statistical Institute
  • Eugene Kobyliansky Human Population Biology Unit, Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12697/poa.2013.22.08

Keywords:

dermatoglyphics, multivariate analysis, Muzeina Bedouins, South Sinai

Abstract

The objective of this study is to compare the pattern of sex differences between two different sets of dermatoglyphic traits: 22 quantitative and 40 indices of diversity and asymmetry through Multivariate analyses in Muzeina Bedouins with high inbreeding coefficient of 0.0908 (Kobyliansky and Hershkovitz 1997) from South Sinai. A degree of universality is observed in the “digital pattern size factor” indicate the genetic factor which has more influence on these variables than environmental factors in male and female. Similarity is also observed by the factors- “intra-individual diversity”, “bilateral asymmetry” extracted from 40 traits which also suggests that a common biological validity exists in the underlying component structure. All variables (two groups) scattered into a number of small clusters are mainly categorized into three large and those are markedly similar between sexes. The above similarity was confirmed by the Mantel statistics- the Z values are within the level of non-significance, very good similarities in 22 (0.88) and good similarities in 40 (0.79) traits. Therefore, sex dimorphism is similar between two categories of dermatoglyphic traits which may be used for sex-discrimination in different ethnic populations.

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