Reptile Scale Types

Reptile Scale Types

Scale Types

This article notes the following scale types:
Keeled
Smooth
Granular
Cycloid 

Keeled scales are those with a raised edge (the keel).

English: Close up of keeled scales. Buff-striped Keelback, Amphiesma stolatum, Family Colubridae, Serpentes. Photographed in Binnaguri, Northern West Bengal, India. AshLin (talk ยท contribs), CC BY-SA 2.5 IN , via Wikimedia Commons


Smooth scales are smooth. In the photo below you can also see enlarged vertebral scales.

Photo of Banded Krait. No machine-readable author provided. AshLin assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 2.5 , via Wikimedia Commons

Granular scales give a bumpy appearance.
No machine-readable author provided. Ridard assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

Smooth, cycloid scales can often be seen with fossorial species such as this Texas Blind Snake Below

undefinedBy Photographer: LA Dawson - Transfer from English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4038369

Note that multiple scale types often occur on the same individual, and are often used to delineate species. 


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