Scute facts for kids
A scute is a bony external plate or scale, as on the shell of a turtle, the skin of crocodiles or the feet of some birds.
Properties
Scutes are similar to scales and serve the same function. Unlike the scales of fish 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. Forming in the living dermis, the scutes produce a horny outer layer, that is superficially similar to that of scales.
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 fish, such as sturgeon.
Images for kids
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This detail of a Glyptodon displays its scutes. From the collection of the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
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Detail of scutes of a leopard tortoise
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The Pineconefish
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Conspicuous scutum on a typical female hard tick before she has fed. Note the pale eye-spots near the edges of the scutum, roughly between the 2nd and 3rd legs -
The same scutum is relatively less conspicuous after the tick has fed, because it has not changed in size, whereas the tick has swollen as it engorged
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In the typical male hard tick, the conscutum covers practically the whole back
