Sex determination based on footprint ratio and comparison of toe print pattern in the male and female Nigerian students (A case study of Bowen University students)

Dermatoglyphics can be described as the study of the patterns of ridges on the skin of the fingers, palms, toes, and soles. These patterns are of interest in anthropology, criminology, and medicine. The skin on the ventral sides of the hands and the plantar sides of the feet is exclusively designed and is corrugated with the ridges and configurations which are functionally useful. Subjects for the study consisted of 100 persons, 50 males and 50 females, all from Bowen University, Iwo, Osun state of Nigeria and they were all students. The age range was 15-24 years of age. The feature being studied includes the print pattern on their 10 digits and some other parameters to distinguish the sole print patterns of both sexes. The toe print pattern was collected by the use of hand lens, used in viewing the prints on the white paper. For measuring the dimensions of foot prints, the following points were noted; The maximum length: the distance between the greatest toe and the mid-rear heal point called the pterion. The maximum width: the distance between the medial and lateral metatarsal It was observed that in the male and female population 92% of the population was found to possess loop patterns on their toes, 4.2% possessed whorl patterns while 3.8% possessed arch patterns. Out of the 50 males, 90% has loop pattern, 3.6 % has whorl pattern, 6.4% possessed arch pattern in their right foot. 92.4% has loop patterns, 3.2 % has whorl patterns and 4.4% has arch pattern in their left foot. In total 91.2% of the population possessed loop pattern, 3.4 % possessed whorl pattern while 5.4 % has arch pattern. Considering that of the female population, out of the 50 subjects, 93.2% possesses loop, 4.4% has whorl pattern and 2.4% has arch pattern in their right foot while in the left foot, 92.4% has loop, 5.6% has whorl and 2% has arch patterns in their left foot. In total the female population has 92.8 % loop, 5% whorl and just 2.2 % arch patterns. This results has shown that the female has more whorl pattern (5%) compared to the female value of 3.4% of whorl pattern. Also male has higher percentage of arch pattern (5.4%) compared to the 2.2% value obtained in females. Sex determination by footprint ratio was carried out and the standard footprint ratio values of 0.371219 and 0.3737645 were obtained. 51% accuracy was obtained in sex determination using this method. All foot print ratio up to these values and below was predicted female while foot print ratio above these values were predicted male.