Editing Pattern (section)

=== Spots, stripes===
{{multiple image |direction=horizontal |total_width=440
|image1=Giant Pufferfish skin pattern detail.jpg|caption1=[[Mbu pufferfish]] skin
|image2=Animal skin.jpg|caption2=Skins of a [[South African giraffe]] and [[Burchell's zebra]]
}}
{{main|Pattern formation}}

[[Alan Turing]],<ref name=Turing>{{Cite journal| last= Turing | first= A. M. | title = The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis | journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B]] | volume = 237 | pages = 37–72 | year = 1952 | doi=10.1098/rstb.1952.0012| issue= 641|bibcode = 1952RSPTB.237...37T | s2cid= 937133 | doi-access=  }}</ref> and later the mathematical biologist [[James D. Murray]]<ref name="Murray2013">{{cite book |last=Murray |first=James D. |title=Mathematical Biology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K3LmCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA436 |date=9 March 2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-3-662-08539-4 |pages=436–450}}</ref> and other scientists, described a mechanism that spontaneously creates spotted or striped patterns, for example in the skin of mammals or the plumage of birds: a [[reaction–diffusion]] system involving two counter-acting chemical mechanisms, one that activates and one that inhibits a development, such as of dark pigment in the skin.<ref name=Ball159>Ball, Philip. ''Shapes'', 2009. pp. 159–167.{{full citation needed|date=February 2024}}</ref> These  [[spatiotemporal pattern]]s slowly drift, the animals' appearance changing imperceptibly as Turing predicted.