title: Crocodile head scales are not developmental units but emerge from physical cracking.
abstract: Various lineages of amniotes display keratinized skin appendages (feathers, hairs, and scales) that differentiate in the embryo from genetically controlled developmental units whose spatial organization is patterned by reaction-diffusion mechanisms (RDMs). We show that, contrary to skin appendages in other amniotes (as well as body scales in crocodiles), face and jaws scales of crocodiles are random polygonal domains of highly keratinized skin, rather than genetically controlled elements, and emerge from a physical self-organizing stochastic process distinct from RDMs: cracking of the developing skin in a stress field. We suggest that the rapid growth of the crocodile embryonic facial and jaw skeleton, combined with the development of a very keratinized skin, generates the mechanical stress that causes cracking.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Artificial and Natural Evolution (LANE), Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. michel.milinkovitch@unige.ch
authors.forename: Michel C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Milinkovitch
authors.forename: Liana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Manukyan
authors.forename: Adrien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Debry
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Di-Poï
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Daljit
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zwicker
mesh_terms: D000489:Alligators and Crocodiles / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000196:embryology / Q000254:growth & development*; D000818:Animals; D006257:Head; D007568:Jaw / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000196:embryology; D007633:Keratins; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D012867:Skin / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000196:embryology / Q000254:growth & development*
chemical_list: D007633:Keratins