This is a companion thread to my "book recommendation" question, because this is the type of information I'm interested in and can't necessarily find through Google. Someone asked me this week why snake skin sheds are clear, and my response was....
uhhhhhhh.
Which is pretty embarrassing for someone who works in environmental education (in my defense, the fine details of herps are somewhat new to me).
I assumed (?) that the keratin scales of a snakes are embedded with pigment deposits. Is there a clear layer of skin that lies tightly
over the scales themselves? I had thought that the scales actually lay
over the skin. Could someone explain this to me?