Achyuthan Srikanthan is a herpetologist/ evolutionary biologist who is interested in the physical, mechanical, and evolutionary aspects of snake scales, integument, and their diverse microstructures.
Scaling Scales
Skin is one of the largest organs of the body, and is the outermost organ that comes in contact with an organism’s immediate environment serving multiple purposes. Of all extant vertebrates, The skin of squamates, unlike other animal groups is comprised of layered, keratinized integument forming the epidermis, which is folded forming epidermal scales. Squamate scales are flexible yet robust providing protection against external parasites, abrasion, mechanical invasion, and the external environment while actively performing homeostatic processes, chemo & mechanoreception. Apart from general functions such as protection, environmental interaction, and sensation, the scales of limbless reptiles such as snakes depend on their skin for locomotion, camouflage, and thermoregulation. There are about 3900 species of snakes that are currently known to inhabit various landscapes and habitats of the world except the poles. Different families, genera, and species have evolved their body morphologies that pertain to their respective locomotion styles and foraging modes adapted to certain habitats and microhabitats. In spite of this known diversity, almost nothing is known or understood about their scales and their associated microstructures. In this project, We explore the large diversity of scale surfaces and their microstructures while discussing their physical and mechanical properties such as roughness, hydrophobicity, structural color, and reflectance that pertain to their environmental adaptations and specializations.