Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2014
A study of the anatomical correlation for the fifth-finger ridge count and its ratio to the correspondent correlation of a first degree relative (i.e., between sons and fathers and daughters and fathers) has been carried out in an inbred population of German ancestry living in Northern Venezuela for the last 127 years. This study revealed a remarkable straight relationship of the logarithm of the above ratio to the probability of having both genes at the locus (or loci) identical by descent, for the trait fifth-finger ridge count, i.e., the coefficient of inbreeding. The practical consequences of this finding for the estimation of inbreeding, if confirmed for other populations, are emphasized.