UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

Many factors such as gene flow, genetic drift, migration, natural selection and temporal variation are responsible for the genetic variation in humans. The present pilot study was conducted to screen a random population of 194 female Indian graduate students for 13 different morphogenetic traits i.e., tongue rolling, tongue folding, polydactyly, hitchhiker's thumb, bent little finger, widow's peak, cleft chin, dimpled cheeks, mid-phalangeal hair, earlobe attachment, crossing of arms, right handedness and arched foot through questionnaires and datasheets. The prevalence of these morphogenetic traits was observed as dominant  traits such as tongue rolling ability (75.3%) and tongue folding ability (96.4%), single-jointed hitchhiker’s thumb (76.3%), straight little finger (93.3%), free ear lobe (62.4%), arched foot (88.7%), right   handedness (99%), right arm crossing over left arm (99.5%) etc. are expressed more recurrently in the population. However, recessive characters like absence of polydactyly (97.9%), absence of dimples (87.6%), absence of widow’s peak (77.8%), round chin (87.1%), absence of mid-phalangeal hair (77.1%), etc. are expressed more commonly in the population. We analyzed whether a trait is dominant or recessive. The survey result shows a disparity of this argument, it shows that some typical dominant character was not expressed but the expression of recessive character was prevalent as in the case of widow’s peak (absent), smooth chin, crossing of arms (right over left), Hitchhiker’s thumb (absent), absence of dimple, etc, all of which are    recessive traits. Outcomes of this study can be suitable for many types of anthropological, medicolegal and population genetics studies.