Now, in a new study, Milinkovitch and his team reported that the polygonal head scales form due to the growth and compression of skin, which creates a self-organizing pattern of folds. 2 These ...

Scientists normally explain the spectacular diversity of animal patterns by pointing to genetics. But a study in Nature suggests that, at least for crocodile heads, different forces might be at play.

We investigated the role of environmental filtering as an underlying mechanism of assembly of compound communities of fleas parasitic on Palearctic small mammals at two spatial scales; a continental ...