Distance analysis of C- and D-lines terminations in Iranian populations

Six Iranian populations have been analyzed for C- and D-lines terminations, utilizing bilateral prints of 720 individuals. Bimanual differences were frequently non-significant, whereas sex differences were frequently significant. Interpopulational variation showed significant heterogeneity among the populations studied. Distance analysis and constructed dendrograms, while considering other thirteen Iranian populations, provided separation between the populations for both C- and D-lines terminations, but the dendrograms were not in agreement with the ethnohistoric records of the populations studied. Therefore, modal types of C- and D-lines terminations are not good measures of population distance and the relationships of populations one to another.