Digital dermatoglyphic fields in the Irish

Analysis of digital dermatoglyphics from a large sample of Irish identifies principal components very similar to those in other United Kingdom samples, both in the eigenvalues and eigenvector distributions. These are interpreted as representing mathematical abstractions of developmental morphogenetic gradients in the embryonic handplate. Apart from the first component representing general size of ridge counts, the second depicts the contrast between ulnar and radial sides of digits, the third the contrast between lateral and mesial areas, and the fourth the gradient across the hand.