Some super close-up images included in this article.
Ancient Turing Pattern Builds Feathers, Hair — and Now, Shark Skin
“Turing mechanisms are theoretically not the only ways to build patterns, but nature seems to favor them. According to Fraser, the reliance on this mechanism by so many far-flung groups of organisms suggests that some kind of constraint may be at work. “There simply may not be many ways in which you can pattern something,” he said. Once a system emerges, especially one as simple and powerful as a Turing mechanism, nature runs with it and doesn’t look back.
“Biological diversity, across the board, is based on a fairly restricted set of principles that seem to work and are reused over and over again in evolution,” said Fraser. Nature, in all its exuberant inventiveness, may be more conservative than we thought.” (Mabert, 2019)