When the stratum corneum is mechanically extracted from the elephant’s skin, it tends to come off in patches delimited by cracks, suggesting that the layer is more fragile in these regions (probably as a consequence of being thinner there, see supplementary Discussion).
From the article:
‘Locally-Curved Geometry Generates Bending Cracks in The African Elephant Skin’
by Martins, Bennett, Clavel, Groenewald, Hensman, Hoby, Joris, Manger & Milinkovitch.
Nature Communications (2018)
DOI : 10.1038/s41467-018-06257-3
[ Ссылка ]
For correspondence:
Prof. Michel C. Milinkovitch, Laboratory of Artificial & Natural Evolution (LANE)
[ Ссылка ]
Dept. of Genetics & Evolution,
University of Geneva, Switzerland.
