An improved statistical method for the racial classification of man by means of palatal rugae.

A classification of human ruga pattern disclosed interracial differences between six population groups. The conventional statistical procedures of linear and quadratic discriminant function and nearest neighbour-point-method delivered overall correct classification figures of 49.2, 45.3 and 29.1 per cent respectively. The jackknife-classification matrix for the kernel-function method delivered an overall percentage correctly classified of 61.1 per cent with an individual group figure range correctly classified of 37-100 per cent. Although computationally elaborate, this technique has led to new insights into the data compared with parametric methods.