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Developmental biology

Serpent clocks tick faster

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Snakes have graceful, elongated bodies containing hundreds of vertebrae. This extreme of morphology stems from evolutionary changes in a developmental clock that regulates body patterning.

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Figure 1: Serpentine silhouettes.
Figure 2: Speeding-up somitogenesis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Freek J. Vonk and Michael K. Richardson are at the Institute of Biology, Leiden University, PO Box 9516, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands. f.j.vonk@biology.leidenuniv.nl m.k.richardson@biology.leidenuniv.nl ,

    Freek J. Vonk & Michael K. Richardson

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  1. Freek J. Vonk
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  2. Michael K. Richardson
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Vonk, F., Richardson, M. Serpent clocks tick faster. Nature 454, 282–283 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454282a

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