1968 Volume 76 Issue 5 Pages 205-214
The finger prints of the Ellice islanders, like those of other Polynesians, show very high whorl percentages, and a corresponding reduction in percentages of loops, the percentage of arches being also very low.
Males (45): whorls =72. 04%; loops=27.52%; arches=0.45%.
Females (67): whorls=64.87%; loops=33.18%; arches=1.95%.
Males and females (112): whorls=67.83%; loops=30.82%; arches=l.35%.
These percentages are very similar to those of Maoris of close to pure blood (Samples A+B, ADAMS and VEALE, 1965; whorls; males, 73.15%, females, 68.93%); they also approximate to those of Society Island Polynesian-European hybrids (whorls: males, 74.70; females, 69.9%).
The deltadiagram also conforms closely to that of other Polynesian races so far studied; it differs from that of the Mangyan (Philippines) and Oroks (Sakhalin)-other high-whorl circum-Pacific groups-in whom the middle-fingers show exceptionally high indices of pattern intensity.