image: A picture showing scales (in a corn snake). Mammalian hairs, avian feathers, and reptilian scales are homologous structures inherited, with modification, from their shared reptilian ancestor's scales. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the June 24, 2016, issue of Science Advances, published by AAAS. The paper, by N. Di-Poï at University of Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland, and colleagues was titled, "The anatomical placode in reptile scale morphogenesis indicates shared ancestry among skin appendages in amniotes." view more
Credit: Copyright Michel C. Milinkovitch 2016