Zebras and tigers have stripes, cheetahs and leopards have spots, and the ocellated lizard (Timon lepidus) boasts a labyrinthine pattern of black-and-green chains of scales. Now researchers from the ...

The pattern of green and black scales on an ocellated lizard can be described with the two-parameter Ising model for antiferromagnetic systems. Each scale of an ocellated lizard, a reptile found in ...

Many scientists, such as the late Stephen Jay Gould, to conclude that each group of living things evolves in its own idiosyncratic manner. But now biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have ...

The chimera monitor lizard stands out because of its unusual appearance and distinctive markings. During the interaction, the reptile is carefully handled while its unique body pattern becomes easy to ...

This week’s Nature (April 12 issue) cover story introduces a study that explains the principle of pattern formation in the Jeweled Lacerta lizard using mathematics. Born with brownish spots on its ...

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 ...