In fact, a crocodile’s head scales even differ significantly ... The hormone caused a dramatic change in the skin pattern, confirming their suspicions. “We saw that the embryo’s skin folds ...

As the crocodile’s skin grows rapidly ... the embryos developed elaborate, brain-like patterns of folds. When the treatment was stopped early enough, the skin partially relaxed back into ...

To investigate if skin growth and stiffness played a role in the development of head scales in other crocodilian species as well, Milinkovitch created a computer model where they could input ...

The cover highlights the mechanically self-organized pattern of scales on the head of a young Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus). Typically, vertebrate skin appendages such as scales ...

With slight tweaks to how fast or thick the skin grows, they were able to recreate the patterns of several crocodile species that looked pretty different. Traditionally, biologists would seek to ...