[Medical anthropological aspects of hand phalanx dermatoglyphics].

Main and middle phalanx skin patterns represent a polymorphic hereditary system of signs practically not studied in anthropology, but interesting for forensic medicine and criminology from the viewpoint of expert evaluation of relation and personality identification. Based on a vast scope of data (600 hand impressions of 300 subjects from Russian families), a classification of patterns on the main and middle finger phalanges has been developed and their incidence evaluated. The proposed classification includes 15 types and 40 subtypes. The incidence of individual patterns on phalanges of different site and order has been determined. The problem of genetic determination, i.e. inheritance of certain patterns from father and mother, remains open and requires a special research.