A young adult ocellated lizard (T. lepidus) was scanned by A. Debry & F. Montange with our high-resolution scanning system, the 3D model was then reconstructed by S. Zakany & E. Jahanbakhsh using structure-from-motion and photometric stereo, then retouched/animated by F. Berger. Scale colour time evolution is from real data from the real lizard.
We have shown that the 3D geometry of the skin scales transforms a Turing continuous Reaction-Diffusion (RD) process into a space-discretised von Neumann Cellular Automaton (CA) that computes the lizard’s adult pattern (Nature 2017). Our results allowed for the first time, biology-driven research to link the work of these two mathematical giants. Links to further analyses are available below. Check also the New York Times article.
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Our publications on scale-by-scale dynamics of skin colour patterning are compiled here.