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Developmental biology

How the lizard gets its speckled scales

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Can a reptile compute? In one species of lizard, Timon lepidus, the colour and pattern of its scales evolve in a manner akin to a discrete rule-based computation called a cellular automaton. See Letter p.173

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Figure 1: The ocellated lizard.

A, FLPA/ALAMY; B, IAN WATT/ALAMY

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leah Edelstein-Keshet is in the Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z2, Canada.,

    Leah Edelstein-Keshet

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  1. Leah Edelstein-Keshet
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Correspondence to Leah Edelstein-Keshet.

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Edelstein-Keshet, L. How the lizard gets its speckled scales. Nature 544, 170–171 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/544170a

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