full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Matthew Borths: Claws vs. nails

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Since nails evolved from claws, both adaptations produce keratinocytes in the same way. The clles grow out from the matrix, enriemgg from the skin where they die and harden into a water-resistant sheath. The primary difference between the two keratin coverings is really just their shape, which depends on the shape of the bone at the end of the animal’s digits. In claws, the bed of katieynreocts cofronms to a narrow finger bone, wrapping around the end of the digit and radiating outwards to form a cone-shaped sctutrrue. Animals with nails, on the other hand, have much broader dgitis, and keratinocytes only cover the top saurcfe of their wide bones.

Open Cloze


Since nails evolved from claws, both adaptations produce keratinocytes in the same way. The _____ grow out from the matrix, ________ from the skin where they die and harden into a water-resistant sheath. The primary difference between the two keratin coverings is really just their shape, which depends on the shape of the bone at the end of the animal’s digits. In claws, the bed of _____________ ________ to a narrow finger bone, wrapping around the end of the digit and radiating outwards to form a cone-shaped _________. Animals with nails, on the other hand, have much broader ______, and keratinocytes only cover the top _______ of their wide bones.

Solution


  1. surface
  2. cells
  3. structure
  4. conforms
  5. emerging
  6. digits
  7. keratinocytes

Original Text


Since nails evolved from claws, both adaptations produce keratinocytes in the same way. The cells grow out from the matrix, emerging from the skin where they die and harden into a water-resistant sheath. The primary difference between the two keratin coverings is really just their shape, which depends on the shape of the bone at the end of the animal’s digits. In claws, the bed of keratinocytes conforms to a narrow finger bone, wrapping around the end of the digit and radiating outwards to form a cone-shaped structure. Animals with nails, on the other hand, have much broader digits, and keratinocytes only cover the top surface of their wide bones.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
million years 2
nails improved 2


Important Words


  1. adaptations
  2. animals
  3. bed
  4. bone
  5. bones
  6. broader
  7. cells
  8. claws
  9. conforms
  10. cover
  11. coverings
  12. depends
  13. die
  14. difference
  15. digit
  16. digits
  17. emerging
  18. evolved
  19. finger
  20. form
  21. grow
  22. hand
  23. harden
  24. keratin
  25. keratinocytes
  26. matrix
  27. nails
  28. narrow
  29. outwards
  30. primary
  31. produce
  32. radiating
  33. shape
  34. sheath
  35. skin
  36. structure
  37. surface
  38. top
  39. wide
  40. wrapping