Many animals get their external marking—like, feathers, hair or scales-from genetics. But it turns out, the crocodile gets its head patterns differently. Scientists normally explain the spectacular ...

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.