scute

File:Scute of the carapace of a Texas tortoise Gopherus berlandieri.jpg of a Texas tortoise]]

File:The Childrens Museum of Indianapolis - Glyptodon scute - detail.jpg displays its scutes. From the collection of the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.]]

Scutes are similar to scales and serve the same function. Unlike the scales of lizards and snakes, which are formed from the epidermis, scutes are formed in the lower vascular layer of the skin and the epidermal element is only the top surface {{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}. Forming in the living dermis, the scutes produce a horny outer layer that is superficially similar to that of scales. Scutes will usually not overlap as snake scales (but see the pangolin). The outer keratin layer is shed piecemeal, and not in one continuous layer of skin as seen in snakes or lizards. The dermal base may contain bone and produce dermal armour. Scutes with a bony base are properly called osteoderms. Dermal scutes are also found in the feet of birds and tails of some mammals, and are believed to be the primitive form of dermal armour in reptiles.

The term is also used to describe the heavy armour of the armadillo and the extinct Glyptodon, and is occasionally used as an alternative to scales in describing snakes or certain fishes, such as sturgeons, shad, herring, and menhaden.

Prehistoric ancestors of mammals, the synapsids, are thought to have scutes which were later reduced and replaced by hair. Excluding the attachment surface of fingernails, armoured scutes or scales are almost never seen in modern mammals. The horny scales of pangolins are only rarely called scutes, but "scute" is used to describe the heavy armour of the armadillo.

{{main|Turtle shell}}

The turtle's shell is covered by scutes formed mostly of keratin. They are built similarly to horn, beak, or nail in other species.

File:Monocentris japonica 001.jpg]]

Some fish, such as pineconefish, are completely or partially covered in large armored scales commonly termed scutes.{{cite web|url=https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/santarosaco/2012/12/19/seasons-greetings/|title=“Sea”sons Greetings!|website=University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences|date=19 December 2012|access-date=8 January 2025|author=((User chrismv))}} Many Clupeomorpha have an abdominal row of scutes, which are scales with raised, sharp points that are used for protection, and in some cases they also possess dorsal scutes anterior to the dorsal fin, as in Knightia spp., Diplomystus spp. and certain extant taxa.{{cite book|last1=Lecointre|first1=G.|last2=Nelson|first2=G.|chapter=Chapter 10 - Clupeomorpha, Sister-Group of Ostariophysi|title=Interrelationships of Fishes|year=1996|pages=193-207|publisher=Academic Press|doi=10.1016/B978-012670950-6/50011-4|editor-last1=Stiassny|editor-first1=M.L.J.|editor-last2=Parenti|editor-first2=L.R.|editor-last3=Johnson|editor-first3=G.D.|isbn=978-0-12-670950-6}} Jacks of family Carangidae often have a row of scutes following the lateral line on either side.{{cite web|url=https://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/sftep/en/thefishes/taxon/1240|title=Family: CARANGIDAE, Jacks, Amberjacks, Crevalles, Jack-Mackerels, Leatherjackets, Lookdowns, Pilot-Fishes, Pompanos, Scads, Trevallies|website=Shorefishes of the Eastern Pacific online information system|publisher=Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute|year=2023|access-date=8 January 2025}} Coelorinchus spp. have scutes suborbitally from their preoperculum extending anteriorly onto a triangular snout.{{cite book|last1=Marshall|first1=N.B.|last2=Iwamoto|first2=T.|chapter=Genus Coelorhynchus Giorna 1809|publisher=Yale University Press|pages=538-564|title=Fishes of the Western North Atlantic Part 6: Orders Heteromi (Notacanthiformes), Berycomorphi (Beryciformes), Xenoberyces (Stephanoberyciformes), Anacanthini (Gadiformes)|editor-last1=Cohen|editor-first1=D.M.|editor-last2=Ebeling|editor-first2=A.W.|editor-last3=Iwamoto|editor-first3=T.|editor-last4=McDowell|editor-first4=S.B.|editor-last5=Marshall|editor-first5=N.B.|editor-last6=Rosen|editor-first6=D.E.|editor-last7=Sonoda|editor-first7=P.|editor-last8=Weed III|editor-first8=W.H.|editor-last9=Woods|editor-first9=L.P.|series=Memoir 1, Sears Foundation for Marine Research|isbn=978-1-933789-16-3|doi=10.2307/j.ctvbcd0bn.11|year=1973}} Sturgeon have five rows of scutes—modified ganoid scales—and are otherwise scaleless.{{cite web|url=https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/endangered-species-conservation/scutes-student-resources|title=Endangered Species Conservation: SCUTES Student Resources|website=NOAA Fisheries|author=Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office|date=26 April 2022|access-date=8 January 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/license_permits_apps/docs/Sturgeon%20Manual.pdf|title=Manual on Sturgeon Reproduction|publisher=Coppens International bv|access-date=8 January 2025|via=Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife}}

The tarsometatarsus and toes of most birds are covered in two types of scales. Large scutes run along the dorsal side of the tarsometatarsus and toes, whereas smaller scutellae run along the sides. Both structures share histochemical homology with reptilian scales; however, work on their evolutionary development has revealed that the scales in bird feet have secondarily evolved via suppression of the feather-building genetic program.Sawyer, R.H., Knapp, L.W. 2003. Avian Skin Development and the Evolutionary Origin of Feathers. J. Exp. Zool (Mol Dev Evol) 298B:57–72.{{cite journal | last1 = Sawyer | first1 = R.H. | last2 = Rogers | first2 = L. | last3 = Washington | first3 = L. | last4 = Glenn | first4 = T.C. | last5 = Knapp | first5 = L.W. | year = 2005 | title = Evolutionary Origin of the Feather Epidermis | journal = Dev. Dyn. | volume = 232 | issue = 2| pages = 256–267 | doi=10.1002/dvdy.20291| pmid = 15637693 | s2cid = 44477271 | doi-access = free }}{{cite journal | last1 = Dhouailly | first1 = D | year = 2009 | title = A new scenario for the evolutionary origin of hair, feather, and avian scales | url =http://www.hal.inserm.fr/docs/00/38/16/27/PDF/inserm-00381627_edited.pdf | journal = Journal of Anatomy | volume = 214 | issue = 4| pages = 587–606 | doi=10.1111/j.1469-7580.2008.01041.x | pmid=19422430 | pmc=2736124}} Unblocking the feather suppression program results in feathers growing in place of scales along the tarsometatarsus and toes. Dinosaur species very close to the origin of birds have been shown to have had "hind wings" made of feathers growing from these areas, suggesting that the acquisition of feathers in dinosaurs was a whole-body event. The bottoms of bird feet are covered in small, keeled scale-like structures known as reticulae. Evolutionary developmental studies on these scale-like structures have revealed that they are composed entirely of alpha keratin (true epidermal scales are composed of a mix of alpha and beta keratin). These data have led some researchers to suggest that reticulae are in fact highly truncated feathers.{{cite journal | last1 = Zheng | first1 = X. | last2 = Zhou | first2 = Z. | last3 = Wang | first3 = X. | last4 = Zhang | first4 = F. | last5 = Zhang | first5 = X. | last6 = Wang | first6 = Y. | last7 = Xu | first7 = X. | year = 2013 | title = Hind wings in basal birds and the evolution of leg feathers | journal = Science | volume = 339 | issue = 6125| pages = 1309–1312 | doi=10.1126/science.1228753 | pmid=23493711| bibcode = 2013Sci...339.1309Z | citeseerx = 10.1.1.1031.5732 | s2cid = 206544531 }}

The term "scutum" is also used in insect anatomy, as an alternative name for the anterior portion of the mesonotum (and, technically, the metanotum, though rarely applied in that context).

File:Amblyomma-variegatum-female.jpg

File:Amblyomma-variegatum-female-engorged.jpgd.}}]]

File:Amblyomma male dorsal.jpg

In the hard ticks, the Ixodidae, the scutum is a rigid, sclerotised plate on the anterior dorsal surface, just posterior to the head. In species with eyes, the eyes are on the surface of the scutum. The flexible exoskeleton posterior to the rigid scutum of the female tick, is called the alloscutum, the region that stretches to accommodate the blood with which the mature female tick becomes engorged. Males do not engorge nearly as drastically as females, so they do not need a flexible alloscutum; instead the rigid scutum covers practically the entire dorsal surface posterior to the head, and may be referred to specifically as the conscutum.{{cite book|author1=Ivan G. Horak|author2=Heloise Heyne|author3=Roy Williams |author4=G. James Gallivan |author5=Arthur M. Spickett |author6=J. Dürr Bezuidenhout |author7=Agustín Estrada-Peña |title=The Ixodid Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) of Southern Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2TtMDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46|date=14 February 2018|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-70642-9|pages=46–}}

In some species of Opiliones, fused abdominal segments are referred to as a scutum.{{cite journal |author1=Ricardo Pinto-da-Rocha |author2=Rafael Fonseca-Ferreira |author3=Maria Bichuette |title=A new highly specialized cave harvestman from Brazil and the first blind species of the genus: Iandumoema smeagol sp. n. (Arachnida, Opiliones, Gonyleptidae) |journal=ZooKeys |date=18 November 2015 |issue=537 |pages=79–95 |doi=10.3897/zookeys.537.6073 |pmid=26798238 |pmc=4714048|doi-access=free }}

• Fish scutes
• Osteoderms
• Scale (zoology)
• Snake scales
• Keratin
• Skin
• Skeleton

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Category:Animal anatomy

Category:Dinosaur anatomy

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