Precursors of Snake Scales
A snake’s scales are a highly recognizable element of snakeskin and are hard and glossy in an adult snake. But during development, the architecture of snake scales is underlain with a dense network of collagen, as seen here.
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DownloadPrecursors of Snake Scales
A snake’s scales are a highly recognizable element of snakeskin and are hard and glossy in an adult snake. But during development, the architecture of snake scales is underlain with a dense network of collagen, as seen here.
What am I looking at?
This is an image of the collagen network within the scales of an African house snake (Boaedon fuliginosus) while they’re in the process of developing. The image is color-coded for depth, giving the viewer a sense of perspective; cooler colors like blue and green are closer to the viewer (1), and warmer colors like red and yellow are farther from the viewer (2).
Biology in the background
The epidermis of reptiles, including snakes, is rich in keratin – the same protein that makes up humans’ hair and nails. Keratin is a hard substance, which is great for helping defend an animal from physical damage as an adult. Below the epidermis, the collagen-rich dermis is softer and more flexible than the epidermis. Prior to the keratinization of the epidermis, a dense network of dermal collagen fibers develops in the snake embryo, providing a scaffold that endows the skin with flexibility.
Each of these embryonic scales is about 0.5 millimeters long, or roughly seven times larger than the width of a human hair.
Technique
This image was created using confocal microscopy.
Grigorii Timin and Michel Milinkovitch, University of Geneva (https://www.lanevol.org)