On a hot and humid night in Vietnam, a scaly creature perched on a rock in the middle of a forest. The animal had yellow eyelids and a mosaic-like pattern. It turned out to be a new species.

Many animals get their external marking—like, feathers, hair or scales-from genetics. But it turns out, the crocodile gets its head patterns differently. Scientists normally explain the spectacular ...

Now, in a new study, Milinkovitch and his team reported that the polygonal head scales form due to the growth and compression of skin, which creates a self-organizing pattern of folds. 2 These ...