The identification of gender is a crucial aspect of forensic and medicolegal investigations. Several studies have been conducted using dermatoglyphics as a potential marker for discerning sexual differences. This study aims to determine whether there exist any sexual dimorphism in the positioning of the axial triradius and the patterns found in the interdigital areas II, III, and IV of both hands. In pursuit of this objective, a cross-sectional dataset was gathered from 140 individuals belonging to the 'Bhil' tribal community, comprising 78 males and 62 females, aged between 18 and 50 years. This data was collected in Moolsagar district, located in the Rajasthan state of Western India. A modified version of the Cummins and Midlo (1961) ink printing method was employed to capture the dermatoglyphic configurations, and the relevant parameters were manually measured. The analysis of the data involved both descriptive statistics and significance tests, specifically the chi-square test based on percentage frequencies.
The findings of this study revealed that the 'Bhil' tribe in Moolsagar village exhibited a high frequency of loop patterns and open fields in the interdigital areas of their palms. Additionally, the study observed no statistically significant bilateral differences in the position of the axial triradius (t, t', t'') between the palms of males and females within the 'Bhil' tribe. It is worth noting that the study faced limitations due to constraints on fieldwork time, which resulted in a relatively small sample size. This limitation may have contributed to the absence of statistically significant findings. This underscores the challenges researchers encounter when striving to obtain robust data within restricted research timeframes.
