Estimation of Stature by Direct and Indirect Length of Distal Phalanx of Thumb

Identification of person is one of the important aspect of forensic investigation. Many researchers were conducted studies for stature estimation from anthropometric measurements of different parts of body, however in available literature very few studies conducted on direct and indirect thumb measurements for the individual's stature estimation. Therefore attempt was to estimate stature of an individual in medicolegal cases where only finger prints and palm prints are available for analysis. The study was carried out 200 subjects. Measurements of distal phalanx of thumb directly with vernier e caliper and indirectly by thumb print measurements were taken independently Stature of each individual was also recorded. These parameters were tabulated and analyzed. Males show higher mean values in each anthropometric dimension than females. The bilateral variation was insignificant for all the measurements. Linear regression equations for stature estimation were calculated and checked for their accuracy by comparing the estimated stature and actual stature.