Digital dermatoglyphic variation and migratory pattern of ethnic Liberians

The magnitude of digital dermatoglyphic variation among ethnic Liberians was examined using a total of 427 people comprising 218 males and 209 females. The three major tribes of ethnic Liberians which comprised Kwa, Mande and Mel exhibited significant finger ridge-count asymmetry and diversity. Also using one way multivariate analysis of variance to access finger ridge-count asymmetry and diversity the finding was consistent with our univariate Fst analysis. The magnitude of inter-group differentiation as measured by Fst showed unbiased values for the four principal component scores ranging from 0.034 to 0.096 in males and 0.025 to 0.050 in females. The females showed lesser differentiation and this perhaps might be explained from the migratory pattern due to difference in marital mobility. The Fst value showed that the Mande population was the most heterogeneous while the Mel population was the most homogeneous. In keeping with the trend that asymmetry and diversity values tend to decrease from the northern to the southern hemisphere, the Mel population with greater ridge-count differentiation might have migrated from far north to their present location in southwestern Liberia. This is consistent with the map location of major ethnic tribes.