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Developmental biology

Serpent clocks tick faster

Nature volume 454, pages 282–283 (2008)Cite this article

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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