Publication detail

Age, sex and positional variations in the human epidermal ridge breadth by multiple measurements on a crosssectional sample of schoolage children

KRÁLÍK, M. KONÍKOVÁ, L. ARSLAN, A. POLCEROVÁ, L. ČUTA, M. HLOŽEK, M. KLÍMA, O.

Original Title

Age, sex and positional variations in the human epidermal ridge breadth by multiple measurements on a crosssectional sample of schoolage children

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

A number of studies have used the measurement of density of epidermal ridges on human fingerprints (or average epidermal ridge breadth if the value is expressed in reverse) as a metric to estimate the age of the originator of the imprint at the time of growth and sex at maturity. A methodologically unsolved question is how the number of ridges measured together within one segment (or the length of the line segment across which the ridges are counted) affects the results. In this study, we therefore investigated how the count of ridges measured together within one segment, as well as the count of averaged segments per subject, when averaged, affect the resulting values of mean epidermal ridge breadth. Moreover, we investigated how different regions on the human fingers and palms differ in this respect. Using a cross-sectional sample of 90 school children (45 girls and 45 boys, age range from 6 to 16 years) from South Moravia, we compared the differences in epidermal ridge breadth in 29 different hand regions, particularly in terms of the degree of age differences. The results show that different regions on the hand vary significantly in the effect of age which might have consequences for estimating age and sex based on these epidermal ridge breadth measurements. However, the ability to statistically distinguish age or sex groups is affected by the number of measurement units (ridges, fingerprints) used to calculate mean epidermal ridge breadth. Therefore, in future research, it would be advisable to introduce computation with interval estimates of MRB or a hierarchical approach directly accounting for individual epidermal ridges.

Keywords

Epidermal ridge breadth, Age estimation, Sex estimation, Dermatoglyphics

Authors

KRÁLÍK, M.; KONÍKOVÁ, L.; ARSLAN, A.; POLCEROVÁ, L.; ČUTA, M.; HLOŽEK, M.; KLÍMA, O.

Released

19. 10. 2022

ISBN

2570-9127

Periodical

Anthropologie

Year of study

60

Number

2

State

Czech Republic

Pages from

379

Pages to

402

Pages count

24

URL

http://puvodni.mzm.cz/Anthropologie/article.php?ID=2372

BibTex

@article{BUT179688,
  author="Miroslav {Králík} and Linda {Koníková} and Aysel {Arslan} and Lenka {Polcerová} and Martin {Čuta} and Martin {Hložek} and Ondřej {Klíma}",
  title="Age, sex and positional variations in the human epidermal ridge breadth by multiple measurements on a crosssectional sample of schoolage children",
  journal="Anthropologie",
  year="2022",
  volume="60",
  number="2",
  pages="379--402",
  doi="10.26720/anthro.22.09.26.1",
  issn="2570-9127",
  url="http://puvodni.mzm.cz/Anthropologie/article.php?ID=2372"
}