Like the title says, what physical characteristics and features distinguishes us Nigerians? Like the way you see someone and know he's Calabar, or you see another one and know she's Fulani.

What are the physical features that makes one actually look Yoruba or Igbo, for instance? E.g. Shape of eyes, facial structure, forehead size etc.

Please answer, it's for a project.

Bump.

The fulanis are easily earmarked b long silky hair and pointed nose.
Some tribes got their facial tribal marks and thats just about it for me when it comes to physical attributes.The rest,I figure out when the person speaks.The accent,tonation does the rest of the job

I think that it's not possible to identify people's ethnicity based on their physical appearance alone. Well first of all, most Nigerian ethnic groups aren't that different (geographically speaking). We are all 'negroes' and most of us are forest dwelling. Most of us share (or at least supposedly share) a common ancestral ethnic group, and thus (for the most part) we share similar facial structure and etc due to the part of West Africa we reside in.

However, although it isn't possible to guess ethnicity based on physical attributes (since there aren't many that distinguish us), there are a few attributes found in certain people. For example, Fulani people (and I mean real Fulani not the Hausa) are said to be almost 'North African-like'. Since they are widespread throughout West Africa, their physical attributes tend to differ from those of their southern forest-dwelling counterparts.

Hausa people, are generally indistinguishable from other Northern Nigerians. Although, their males are said to be very dark in complexion while their females vary (could it be the hijab?).

What I've noticed about some Yoruba people is that they tend to resemble people from the heart of West Africa (countries like Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Cote D'Ivoire) in complexion.

The Igbo and other Eastern groups are virtually indistinguishable except for one thing. The Ibibio-Efik are said to be slightly shorter than other Easterners. I don't know why this is so, but it might be due to the thick forests in the Cross-River area.

Well other than these methods which I've listed, the only other ways that it's possible to identify a person's ethnicity would be their attire and speech/accents. I hope this has helped.

Time has passed, so I'll say this: It's for a drawing project. All your answers have helped, but I want to know what to look for when drawing faces to make them look distinguished. I, for example can guess someone's origin based on their eyes and face. I used to have a social studies note about the subject in question (worldwide, the Czech look different from the Persians), but I lost it years ago, hence my asking.