Digital dermatoglyphic study in three west Algerian populations: Reguibates, Zenata, Oran

ABSTRACT The study of Dermatoglyphics has a great importance in medical, judicial, criminal and anthropological research. Human dermatoglyphic traits present variations within and between populations. The purpose of this paper is to provide a descriptive analysis of digital dermatoglyphic traits in three Algerian populations and enrich the anthropogenetic database of this population. The current study was conducted on 315 healthy and consenting individuals, 228 (144 males and 84 females) from Oran, the second most important city in Algeria located in the northwest of the country, 46 Reguibates (20 males and 26 females), and 42 Zenata (16 males and 26 females). The results show that the most common descending order of pattern type frequencies for both hands in the three samples is Ulnar loop, Whorl, Arch, Radial loop. One exception is seen in the Reguibates sample that has an unusually high frequency of radial loop. The analysis of qualitative digital characters revealed bimanual differences in the three populations.